Poway Unified School District to form CAB advisory committee

Poway Unified School District board members Tuesday night agreed to form an advisory committee to study what to do about the district’s controversial capital appreciation bond obligations.

Applications to serve on the “CAB Solutions Advisory Committee” will be accepted online until April 13, with board appointments to the panel set for the April 20 board meeting. The application form will be available at www.powayusd.com within a few days.

Proposed by board President Kimberley Beatty, the committee will have at least five members (each board member will be appointing one person) and will be given up to a year to study the CAB situation and generate a written report.

Beatty said the board will be looking for applicants who have expertise in the areas of business, finance and the law.

The district’s use of CABs to repay bills for a voter-approved school modernization program generated a storm of controversy after it was reported that it would cost taxpayers nearly $1 billion to repay the borrowed $105 million in bonds over 40 years. Payments will not start for another 17 years after earlier bonds are retired at the current tax rate of $55 per $100,000 assessed valuation. The CABs do not have a “call” feature which would allow their refunding (refinancing) at lower interest rates.

Late last summer a San Francisco-based financial firm proposed to buy back some of the bonds. Although extensively discussed by the board and at other public meetings, the idea was tabled until after the November 2014 school board election and has not been brought back.

On Tuesday, Beatty said she felt that any proposals to “ameliorate” the financial impact of the CABs should come from the community.

The April 20 meeting will also see the board appoint members to the new Educational Technical Advisory Committee, created last month. The online application deadline for that panel is April 13.

In another matter related to bonds (but not CABs), the board voted 4-1 to proceed with the refunding of up to $100 million in bonds in Community Facilities District No 14 (Del Sur). Projections call for the district to spend about $1.2 million in fees to save $14 million in interest payments over the life of the bonds. Whether some of those fees will be too high was the subject of about an hour of debate Tuesday night. A letter from the San Diego County Tax Collector’s office, written following a recent meeting between several of its employees with PUSD representatives, suggested the district should negotiate for a better underwriter’s discount. Board members were told a lower rate had since been negotiated. Board member Charles Sellers voted against the refunding, saying he does not “trust the process.”

Meeting for 4 1/2 hours Tuesday night, the school board also:

• Heard Poway parents Kim and Chris Garnier, in separate presentations, strongly criticize the district for allegedly not doing enough to discourage racism. Chris Garnier, the recipient of a court-issued restraining order prohibiting him from setting foot on the Painted Rock Elementary campus, called for the resignation of Supt. John Collins.

• Heard three representatives from the Friends of the Rancho Bernardo Library asking for the hiring of a library aide and for the replacement of books that are nearly 20 years old.

• Heard Lynette Turner, president of the Poway School Employees Association, which represents 1,600 non-teaching workers, say that 2015-2016 contract talks will focus on the district contributing more to health benefits, improved vacation benefits and a restoration of staffing to pre-2007 levels.

• Voted 3-2 to appoint Margaret Wyatt as the district’s representative to the three-member Personnel Commission. She and two other candidates were interviewed for the position during the board meeting. Incumbent commission member Rosemarie Straight received two board votes. The third finalist was Richard Dukellis.

• Discussed ways to possibly shorten the length of school board meetings. No decisions were reached and the matter was continued to the April 20 board meeting.