State Board Approves 29 School Districts to Receive Qualified School Construction Bonds -

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Selected schools can take advantage of low- to no-interest bonds for construction and building needs

SPRINGFIELD, IL –Twenty-nine school districts have been authorized to sell their local bonds with a federal interest subsidy for construction projects through the Qualified School Construction Bond program (QSCB).

The Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) approved the QSCB recipients during its regular business meeting Feb. 10. A total of $495 million-plus in bonding authority from the federal government will be available to these districts.

“This authorization means selected districts can take advantage of low- to zero-interest bonds to pay for building and construction needs rather than diverting limited financial resources away from the classroom” said State Superintendent of Education Tony Smith, Ph.D. “No state dollars are being spent, and local taxpayers will not have to help foot the bill for high interest costs.”

ISBE accepted applications for the QSCB program from Dec. 1 to Jan. 15 and received a total of 193 applications seeking $2.4 billion. ISBE staff reviewed the applications using a priority ranking process approved by the Board and recommended 29 districts for approval. The approved districts are:

County	District Name	QSCB Authorization Requested	QSCB Authorization Recommended
Cook	Chicago Heights SD 170	$45,000,000	$45,000,000
Lake	Waukegan CUSD 60	7,000,000	7,000,000
Cook	Lincoln ESD 156	4,350,000	4,350,000
Cook	Community Consolidated SD 168	9,000,000	9,000,000
Lake	Round Lake Area Schools 116	900,000	900,000
Kane	Aurora East SD 131	50,000,000	50,000,000
Cook	Park Forest SD 163	13,000,000	13,000,000
Cook	Sandridge SD 172	1,300,000	1,300,000
Cook	Burnham SD 154-5	670,000	670,000
Cook	Lansing Elem SD 158	18,000,000	18,000,000
Cook	Cicero SD 99	28,445,000	28,445,000
Cook	Hoover-Schrum Memorial SD 157	3,000,000	3,000,000
Marion	Sandoval CUSD 501	2,000,000	2,000,000
Cook	Posen-Robbins SD 143.5	11,700,000	11,700,000
Winnebago	Rockford PSD 205	29,086,530	29,086,530
Vermilion	Danville CCSD 118	3,365,500	3,365,500
Cook	Country Club Hills ESD 160	6,000,000	6,000,000
Kankakee	Kankakee SD 111	29,820,000	29,820,000
Champaign	Rantoul Twp. HSD 193	1,015,874	1,015,874
Cook	JS Morton HSD 201	50,000,000	50,000,000
Cook	Argo CHSD 217	17,800,000	17,800,000
Cook	Bremen Twp. HSD 228	50,000,000	50,000,000
Cook	W Harvey-Dixmoor PSD 147	10,000,000	10,000,000
DuPage	Marquardt SD 15	26,700,000	26,700,000
Champaign	Rantoul City Schools 137	10,000,000	10,000,000
Cook	Bloom Twp. HSD 206	30,000,000	30,000,000
LaSalle	LaSalle ESD 122	5,478,000	5,478,000
LaSalle	Streator ESD 44	5,500,000	5,500,000
Kane	Aurora West Unit School District 129	50,000,000	26,471,096
Total		$519,130,904	$495,602,000

The QSCB program was created under Section 1521(a) of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The program is a source of limited financial bonding for school districts to fund the rehabilitation or repair of an existing public school facility, construction of a new public school facility, equipment associated with repair or construction, or for land acquisition related to the construction of a new facility. Bond proceeds can be used for building rehabilitation and repair allowing districts to issue low- to no-interest bonds in lieu of higher interest rate Fire Prevention (health, life, and safety) bonds.

In 2012, ISBE entered an intergovernmental agreement with the Governor’s Office of Management and Budget (GOMB) to grant GOMB the authority to allocate or issue these bonds. Late last year the GOMB notified ISBE that it relinquished its authority back to ISBE.

School districts that applied for the QSCB program were limited to a maximum request of $50 million each. If an authorized district does not issue the bonds within 18 months, the authority will revert back to ISBE. Bond proceeds also must be spent within three years of the issue date.

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