This may be the best time since John F. Kennedy occupied the White House to borrow millions of dollars to upgrade Lawrence school buildings.

Low interest rates and the district’s modest debt load is enough to convince professionals it is a good time for Lawrence voters to invest in school improvements.

“Prevailing interest rates are near 40-year lows,” said Roger Edgar, executive vice president of George K. Baum and Co. of Kansas City, Mo. “If you need to borrow money, this is not necessarily a bad time to do it.”

As of June 30, he said, the Lawrence district had $69.9 million in outstanding bond debt, but $33 million in principal would be repaid over the next five years. Fifty million dollars will be paid off in 10 years.

“The district is paying down its debt at a very nice clip,” Edgar said.

The Lawrence school board convenes at 7 p.m. Monday to settle on a plan for the schools and define contents of what could be a $60 million bond issue for school construction and renovation.

The board also will vote whether to hire Gilmore & Bell, which has law offices in Kansas City, Mo., and Wichita, to serve as bond counsel to the district. George K. Baum has already been retained as bond adviser.

Low debt

David Arteberry, first vice president at George K. Baum, said one factor the board should consider when preparing a bond issue was the district’s debt burden. It’s often expressed as a percentage of assessed property valuation in the school district.

In Lawrence, $69.9 million in debt is stacked against an assessed valuation of $692.7 million, excluding motor vehicles. The district’s debt in relation to tax base is 10 percent, a figure that ranks Lawrence 24th out of 27 districts in Kansas that experienced enrollment growth from 1992 to 2001, he said.

Debt to assessed valuation topped 30 percent in the DeSoto, Dodge City, Goddard, Gardner-Edgerton and Andover districts.

The Eudora, Baldwin, Liberal, Rose Hill, Olathe, Blue Valley, Maize, Spring Hill, Paola, Osawatomie and Louisburg districts had debt-to-valuation ratios above 15 percent.

“Passage of an additional bond issue doesn’t produce an inordinate burden in relation to other districts,” Supt. Randy Weseman said.

Arteberry said the Lawrence district’s property tax increase would be $5.91 a month for the owner of a home with an appraised value of $100,000, assuming the bond issue was for $60 million.

In other words, the fictional homeowner would have to give up one super-sized fast-food meal every month to cover new taxes collected for school facilities.

A record investment

“I am very comfortable asking this community to support something that would cost between $5 and $6 a month for every $100,000 in valuation,” said Scott Morgan, board president.

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If approved by the board and adopted by voters, a $60 million bond issue would be a record investment in the district’s infrastructure.

The previous bond issue record in Lawrence schools was $47.9 million, approved in November 1994. That included $36.9 million for construction of Free State High School and $11 million for improvements to other schools.

The enormity of a new bond issue and the decision to save money by closing East Heights, Centennial and Riverside elementary schools will certainly generate opposition in the community.

Passage of a bond issue is not a slam dunk.

Joe Patterson, a 1954 graduate of LHS, said at a recent public forum he had supported public school bond issues for nearly half a century.

However, he said, the board’s current emphasis on bricks-and-mortar was misguided.

“I have yet to see a building educate a child in Lawrence,” he said.