The original $114 million bond for a new North Summit High School failed at the ballot box during the November 2024 election by a 12% margin.
This month, the board of education formed what’s called a “local building authority,” which lays the groundwork to issue the bond anyway.
But it hasn’t decided whether to do so.
Board members are convinced the district needs a new high school, citing structural and other safety concerns about the roughly 48-year-old building.
And issuing a bond after it was rejected by voters may be unpopular. Property taxpayers would be in charge of paying off the debt.
Resident Pam Slaughter agreed that North Summit needs a new school building but said $114 million is too much for her neighbors.
“We're setting ourselves up to be another development for the elite,” she said at the board’s Jan. 8 meeting during public comment. “And the good old boys that have been here for years to raise the community and make it what it is aren't going to be able to afford to live here anymore.”
The type of bond the board would issue is called a lease revenue bond (LRB). It’s able to do so without a vote because, technically, the local building authority is issuing the bonds and not the district.
The district then leases the property from the building authority, which uses the rent payments to pay back its creditors. Unlike normal government bonds, LRBs aren’t backed by taxpayers’ “full faith and credit.”
And because they’re not backed by the government’s full faith and credit protections, LRBs generally carry higher interest rates. And district administrators worry that waiting to issue the bond will only make it more expensive because of inflation.
“$120 million is nothing to scoff at. No doubt about it. Wait five years and it'll be $200 million,” resident Mich Richins said during public comment. “You're right: Park City is coming to our town, and if we don't get in front of Park City coming to our town, we'll be catching up. And I'm afraid we're going to be catching up far beyond the $120 million mark. That's my concern.”
In November, the school board adopted articles of incorporation to form the local building authority. This month, they formally created it.
The building authority exists only on paper to undertake construction projects, and the school district pays the authority back with property taxes.
So at the end of the day, it’s a way for the district to go into debt to itself to finance any number of things.
“My understanding is most districts already have this in place in the event that they have something come up, an emergency-type situation or a need,” Board President Vern Williams said Jan. 8.
As of Jan. 22, the school board didn’t have the high school bond issue on its February meeting agenda.
