Marlboro County School District Board of Education OKs acquisition of furniture

By: | SCNow
Published: August 04, 2009

BENNETTSVILLE — Members of Marlboro County School District Board of Education approved the acquisition of classroom furniture for five schools in the district, as well as a resolution authorizing the issuance and sale of a general obligation bond not to exceed $600,000.
Renovations are under way at Bennettsville Primary School, Bennettsville Elementary School, Bennettsville Middle, Wallace Elementary/Middle School, and the School of Discovery, and classroom furniture is needed to complete the project, Wes Park, the district’s director of finance, said during the board’s regular meeting Monday night.
Park said he was requesting the “authorization to coordinate the classroom furniture purchase with school principals and the district’s director of operations through the state purchasing option prior to the board adopting the 2009-10 budget.”
The district is operating under the 2008-09 budget thanks to a continuing resolution the board passed in order to continue operating until the 2009-10 budget is approved.
The budget that the district is operating under doesn’t include the use of revenue from the district’s 2008 general obligation bond, so Park said he was requesting the board’s authorization to pay for the new student desks and chairs from the 2008 general obligation bond.
As of June 30, the balance of those funds is $1,128,227.
The proposed 2009-10 operating budget includes $20,000 for classroom furniture for each school, Park said.
In other business, the board adopted a resolution authorizing the issuance and sale of a general obligation bond not to exceed $600,000 through the South Carolina Association of Governmental Organizations.
The resolution also gives the superintendent approval to execute an escrow agreement with Wells Fargo Bank, so the revenue from the bond will be deposited and used to make the district’s 2009-10 fiscal year installment payment on Dec. 1 and June 1, 2010.
The resolution originally called for $800,000, but Park and Superintendent Dr. Frank G. Roberson said they don’t anticipate exceeding $600,000.
According to the resolution, the district, on an annual basis, must issue a general obligation bond to provide funds to “retire the annual installment purchase revenue bond” issued in 2007.
The board’s next scheduled meeting will be a board/cabinet retreat from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Thursday at The Skye, 210 E. Main St., Bennettsville.