Coal City School District 1 mulls over $21 million in bonds to complete facilities improvement plan

The Coal City School District 1 Board discussed potentially ordering a $21 million bond issue during its meeting last Wednesday, which would make help the district meet the goals set by the facilities improvement plan.

Superintendent Chris Spencer said the estimated $21 million the district could prospectively bond out for would make every project on that plan possible before 2026.

“That number has a little buffer in there and the Board has other options built into that resolution,” Spencer said. “They wanted to start that process and they may decide to do one or two bonds, or they could decide to do none at all but this is how to get whatever money they need.”

The resolution passed during the board meeting allows the district to seek out a bond issuance, although it doesn’t look it into any action. It allows the district to seek options that will help it continue to meet its goals.

“The board looked at our strategic plan and said, you know, let’s look at this more,” Spencer said. “We’ve got Dresden (Nuclear Power Plant) here and we don’t know for how long. Just a few years ago, we were worried they were gonna close.”

Dresden pays the school district $17.3 million per year until 2026, so the board decided to be more aggressive with its plan to make sure facility improvements happen.

The Coal City School District has already met two of the goals listed, namely fixing a flooring issue at the middle school and building a new road that connected a new road to Carbon Hill behind the district office that connects to the middle school into a new parking lot.

That parking lot allows for better access to the middle school baseball and softball fields.

The district also spent $224,000 on a new weight room at Coal City High School that Spencer said has become one of the most used classrooms in the entire school, whether it’s for a health-and-fitness class or for students to use after school.

The timeline for projects within Coal City schools continues with a project that would re-turf the football field going out for bid and the potential for a new track on the horizon.

Spencer said what follows will be new turf for the baseball and softball fields.