The Avon Grove School District is attempting to correct what some district officials are saying is not just inaccurate, but misleading, information regarding the high school project that was shared on local social media and website posts.

At the Avon Grove School Board's reorganization meeting on Dec. 6, school board president Tracy Lisi read what was described as a board statement that was prepared in response to a post by a group formed several years ago called The Avon Grove Taxpayers for Responsible Spending. The group maintains a website with a wealth of information about the school district. However, school district officials are concerned that the website contains inaccurate information that would confuse parents and taxpayers in the district, and that in some cases the information is being presented in such a way so as to purposely mislead residents.

Lisi specifically addressed a post that served as a summary of a Nov. 15 meeting of the Avon Grove School Board. The summary included a headline which read, “Board votes 5-4 to increase borrowing from $127 to $139 million.” The summary then goes on to say that the board voted to approve the borrowing resolution of $139 million, which is $12 million more than what was the previous “ceiling” of $127 million. In that same post, the website took the school board to task for holding the Nov. 15 meeting after Avon Grove schools were dismissed early that day because of poor weather conditions.

Lisi then offered four detailed “fact checks” to the online posts. The most significant fact check pertains to the amount that the school district expects to borrow in order to construct a new high school and renovate the existing high school into a middle school.

Lisi emphasized that, “The Avon Grove School Board remains at $127 million number in terms of actual dollars to be borrowed. To be clear, the school board has previously authorized total actual borrowing with a $127 million ceiling. For technical purposes, and in order to allow the financing team to price the bonds in the most advantageous way for the school district and its taxpayers, the $139 million figure was listed as a potential outside maximum amount in the parameters filing. The board, however, has clearly instructed the total actual amount borrowed to be set at a maximum of no greater than $127 million.”

Lisi expanded on the point, explaining that the school board had, at a meeting in October, directed the administration and the financial advisors from PFM and RBC Capital Markets to prepare a parameters resolution in preparation for the issuance of an immediate bond of $40 million.

The school board president explained, “Parameters Resolutions have been used for over a decade in Pennsylvania, since the adoption of Act 1. The parameters idea is to set interest rates and borrowing amounts greater than expected to provide flexibility to the borrower on timing and financing structure. More importantly, this process saves money on borrowing and leagal costs as there is one resolution, not multiple resolutions. Once the total financings are completed, the remaining Parameters amount is eliminated at the state and does not count against the borrower's debt limits. The approval of the 2006 Parameters Resolution, commonly known as the Pre-Act 1 Forward, has been dissolved as a result of the adoption of this new Parameters Resolution.”

By moving forward on the $40 million issuance quickly, Lisi explained, the district was able to achieve a better interest rate than had been anticipated during the presentation by RBC on Nov. 15. Instead of a $3.77% rate and a total payback of $54,698,259, the sale of the bonds on Nov. 29 resulted in an interest rate of 3.39% with a total payback of $52,878,806. That's more than $1.8 million less in costs for the taxpayers in the district.

Additionally, Lisi said, the millage required to fund the $127 million in projects has gone down from the initial estimates of 2.95 mills, or .59 mills annually for five years, to 2.82 mills over that same five-year period. The millage rates required to fund the borrowing are now projected to be .58 mills in the first year, and .56 mills in each of the next four years after that. On the post on the Avon Grove Taxpayers for Responsible Spending website, a great deal was made of the possibility that borrowing for the high school project will lead to the maximum allowable tax increases for years. Lisi said that this is not accurate.

“The actions of the board by approving the resolution has paid off for the district and its taxpayers with this initial borrowing,” Lisi said. “The district will close on this transaction on December 20.”

The statement that Lisi read also addressed the issue of an earned-income tax. On the Avon Grove Taxpayers for Responsible Spending, it was claimed that the district is looking for additional revenues because of the costs associated with the planned construction projects.

Lisi provided an update on the earned-income tax (EIT) discussion by saying, “The issue of implementing an EIT was discussed in greater detail at the November Finance Committee meeting. The administration was asked to research how an EIT works. This request came during the September Finance Committee meeting. After much discussion, no action regarding an EIT will be made by the board at this time for various reasons, such as required referendums and implications for boroughs that already have enacted the full one-percent EIT.”

Lisi also noted that, while the board did meet on a day when school was dismissed early because of weather conditions, there were time-sensitive issues that the board had to attend to that evening. At the beginning of the meeting, Lisi said, the board voted 9-0 to waive its policy in order to conduct the meeting. Everyone agreed on the motion that night, Lisi explained.

The school board, which has been sharply divided during the process of analyzing the various building options that would address the district's long-term facilities needs, as well as many other issues, was divided about the statement, too.

Board members Charles Beatty III and John Auerbach, in particular, objected to the statement being presented as a “board statement.” Beatty questioned where the statement came from since the board never voted on the statement, and all the members weren't given enough of an opportunity to even review it before it was made public.

Auerbach agreed, saying that while he didn't have a problem with the statement itself, he did not like how the situation was handled procedurally.

Board member Jeffrey Billig said that the most important thing was correcting what he called “grossly incorrect” information.

“It was a flat-out incorrect statement,” Billig said of the information that was posted on the website.

Billig asked if anybody on the board actually believed that the Nov. 15 vote on borrowing parameters really increased the amount of money that the school board had authorized to be borrowed—as had been suggested by the posts on the Avon Grove Taxpayers for Responsible Spending website and Facebook page. Billig said that each board member should respond “yes” or “no” to that, to make it clear that everyone on the board is committed to getting out only accurate information to the public.

As the disagreements among board members continued, school board vice president Bill Wood suggested discussing the issue at the board's upcoming retreat, which settled the discussion—on that evening, at least.

At the Dec. 13 meeting, board member Rick Dumont, echoing some of the same concerns that Auerbach and Beatty raised about the full board not voting on the statement, requested that the statement be reissued as a statement by the board president.

“We received it at 4:17 for a six o'clock meeting,” Dumont said. “It came as a surprise to many of us.”

Lisi replied that the statement was being revised right up to the last minute, and they wanted to get the information out to the community as soon as possible.

“I felt compelled to correct the inaccurate information,” Lisi said. She also pointed out that, as board president, it was her duty to speak on behalf of the board when situations arise. She also said that the board should establish some procedural measures at the upcoming retreat.

Superintendent Dr. Christopher Marchese supported Lisi's statement about the importance of correcting any misinformation that might be circulating. He implored the school board members to be proactive when it comes to making sure that the correct information is being shared with the community.

“If we see things that are inaccurate, I feel strongly that we have a responsibility to correct it,” Marchese said. “When you see things like this, please correct it.”