Fred Wildnauer is running for the one open seat as a South Berwick representative to the SAD 35 Board of Directors.
I will be casting my vote for school board for Fred Wildnauer. I do not have children in the school system but believe excellent schools increase the value of my property and contribute to the quality of life of the Town. SAD35 represents the largest share of our property taxes so I am concerned about the budget and want to see a balance where educational quality is maintained and the budget is in line with the economy.
Fred Wildnauer values education and has a commitment to making sure SAD35 is the best it can be. Having raised two children who went through SAD35 schools and who went on to competitive colleges, Fred understands the school system from a parent’s perspective.
Fred is concerned about the growing burden that the schools place on property taxes. I have had the opportunity to talk with Fred about how he would approach addressing the school budget. I appreciate that he does not have preconceived notions about what needs to happen but would approach his duties on the school board by learning and asking questions. He is willing to be open to all avenues of cost savings and revenue and sees his role on the Board as one of asking questions and generating discussion.
I know that some in the community feel that the School Board has not been responsive to citizens’ concerns about the budget and some think the Board is unwilling to consider cost cutting measures. I’m not sure that is true, but I would like to see more dialogue between the School Board and citizens about the budget. To make that happen I would like someone like Fred Wildnaur on the Board; someone who will not be afraid to ask questions about all aspects of the budget and who is willing to participate in a constructive dialogue about how to control the budget while maintaining quality of education.
I appreciate having a local small business owner on the School Board. Those who run small businesses are intimately involved in day to day decisions about where to save money and where to invest. A successful business owner also has to learn how to maintain operations during lean times. As the owner of a woodworking business, Fred Wildnaur would bring that perspective to the School Board.
I appreciate that Fred has researched the upcoming Qualified School Construction Bond that is on the ballot and has taken a stance to support it. Passage of the bond will allow MSAD35 to improve air quality in our older schools and bring them up to code. The bond offers a unique financing opportunity that will allow the work to be done in a cost effective manner that will not add a burden to taxpayers. (See below for additional information provided by Fred Wildnaur regarding the bond issue.)
That’s why I will be voting for Fred Wildnauer for School Board on November 3.
–Molly Colman
This is additional information that Fred Wildnauer provided regarding the Qualified School Constructin Bond:
The financing for this is once in a lifetime deal. Here is a link to the supporting document that the superintendent’s office put out for the amazingly poor attended information meeting on Monday.
Information from the Superintendent’s office about the Bond: http://www.msad35.net/sites/default/files/QSCB%20INFO_0.pdf
The money for these projects is in the form of normal loans but with the backing of the Federal Government Stimulus package. The way the fed backs this up is by offering tax breaks to the banks that loan out the money. The tax break right now is around 6%. The thinking of the business manager and people on the state level is that the banks will not charge any interest to the borrower (SAD 35) because the tax break is higher than any interest the market would let them charge. They don’t have to not charge interest, but they most likely will not charge interest (a bond is put out to bid). So that’s a good deal by itself, but it gets better! This tax incentive also would make the banks want to keep this as an outstanding note on their books for the life of the loan (15years). Therefore, MSAD will make its payments to the bank as though it was a normal bond but the Bank will put these payments in an interesting bearing account where it will accrue interest over the 15 years. Once the principal and interest in that interest bearing account reaches the loan amount, the note will be paid off saving SAD35 the amount of interest accrued. The business manager figures that even at a conservative rate of 1.5%, this will amount to $330,000 over the 15 years. So, now we have borrowed $3.2 million and bought $3.2 million worth of needed work and will have paid $2.9 million for it. A sweet deal, but there is more. We will do all the work in a year or less so figuring a conservative inflation rate of 2.8% we will save an additional $666,873. So now the work cost $2.2 million roughly. There’s more. The economy is bad right now so construction prices are at a low. This number can’t be measured yet, but the probability of getting either more work or the work for even less seems strong.
It is okay to be incredibly enthusiastic about this financing package. Even if we don’t get the absolute lowest price on the work (we are contracting this work to a company the school has worked with in the past as a design/build) we can absolutely afford it. My feeling is we can’t afford not to do this. If I am elected, I will take Ralph Stevens place on the facilities committee and I promise I will advocate strongly that the contractor: 1. Uses local help whenever possible. 2. Uses state of the art equipment to squeeze every drop of energy and operating savings out possible and 3. Holds to the prices he has given in the scope of work outlined in the document on the MSAD web site.
The work we are paying for is to maintain our aging buildings (no work on the high school). This will replace aging equipment or put in ventilation equipment where there is none now. This is designed to improve the air quality in our old buildings and to therefore improve the health of our students by bringing everything up to current code.
The superintendent and the school board are convinced that the $200K payment on the bond can come out of the $300K or so that we already put aside every year as a contingency fund for building maintenance. There are plenty of inflationary pressures on the budget but this bond will not be one of them.
–Fred Wildnauer
