School board elects, refinances / By Martha Knight

The Port Allegany School Board  Monday night voted 7 to 0 to refund a 2010 bond issue and borrow $4,919,000 from Branch Banking and Trust Co. (BB&T), of Charlotte, North Carolina.

Public Financial Management, Inc. of Harrisburg, handled the sale, and listed proposals from seven potential lenders. BB&T’s interest rate was lowest, at 1.89 percent. Others ranged as high as 3.25 percent.

The district would be allowed to pay all or part of the principal at par on any scheduled payment date.

Savings from the refinancing will amount to $108,694.63 for the district, most of it in 2015 and 2016.

The district’s debt was incurred in the course of major renovations to school buildings under the state’s PlanCon program. The state reimbursement is provided throughout the life of the bond issue, as the district makes its payments, and currently amounts to a less than one third of the total locally. The state will save $44,013.44  between now and March, 2022, the life of the bond issue.

The board also heard its annual audit report from Dan DiTanna of Buffamente Whipple Buttafaro, of Olean, N.Y. DiTanna said the report  “expresses an unmodified opinion on the financial statements” of the district. He described this as the best opinion the firm can give. No instances of noncompliance with federal and other auditing requirements were found.

One “weakness” mentioned by DiTanna and set forth in the written report had to do with adjustments and footnotes in journal entries. He said that he had gone over these with the district. His report noted the district’s response, which agreed with and implemented the auditor’s recommendations.

The board accepted the annual audit report by a vote later in the meeting.

In the board’s annual reorganization, Scott Moses was elected president and Denise Buchanan was re-elected vice-president. Both were the sole nominees and were elected unanimously. David Mensch had indicated last month that he would rather not be considered for another tern.

Moses said he would make committee appointments in January.

In personnel matters the board added Alyssa Lapp to the substitute list, and approved Matthew Johnson as a volunteer basketball coach.

The administration was authorized to prepare and pay a General Fund bill list, with the board to vote retroactive approval at a meeting in January.

Board member Dan Kysor brought up a matter for discussion next month, renewing his call for a junior high soccer program be to be added to sports offerings by the district. He suggested that cross country be dropped, inasmuch as more students would be involved in the soccer program. “It’s more bang for the buck,” he said.

The board also changed its meetings rhythm, used for well over a decade, from second and fourth Monday evenings to first and second Monday meetings.

Since the arrival of superintendent Gary Buchsen late last year, the board has deemed its second-Monday meeting a “regular” business meeting, and the fourth-Monday one a discussion meeting, referred to as “committee-of-the-whole” meeting, although both are public meetings and business can be handled at both.

As explained by Buchsen, the first-meeting now would be the committee-of-the-whole meeting, with reports and discussion items tackled then, in advance of the regular business meeting a week later.

In effect the change moved the mainly-discussion meeting one week closer to the next regular meeting than the fourth-Monday schedule would, in most months. Also, the change creates a conflict with the first-Monday dates of the Port Allegany Borough Council.