A city schools of Decatur bus. Photo from CSD Facebook page.

In November 2015, Decatur voters gave overwhelming support to allow City Schools of Decatur to borrow $75 million for school construction.

Most of that money – about $50.4 million – has not been spent, information provided by CSD shows. The information also shows that CSD has exceeded what was budgeted for purchasing land by $4.4 million. The land acquisition budget was $9.2 million.

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CSD has bought the following properties to date:

927 S. McDonough (next to College Heights) – $525,000

204 and 208 Westchester (next to Westchester Elementary) – $1 million

Multiple parcels on Talley St. / S. Columbia, site for CSD’s proposed new 3-5 school:

2601 Talley Street, and 302, 304, 308, 312, and 314 South Columbia Drive –  Approximately $4.9 million

2617 Talley Street – Approximately $2.3 million

316 South Columbia – $450,000

CSD also has also recently agreed to purchase land from the Decatur Housing Authority for $4.4 million, meaning CSD will exceed its budget for land purchases by about $4.4 million. The school system set aside about $6.4 million of the bond proceeds to cover any cost overruns, and has spent $16,430 out of that contingency. Factoring in the DHA land purchase, CSD will have less than $2 million in the contingency account. That means CSD will have to budget carefully, finish projects under budget or find other sources of money if the cost overruns exceed $2 million.

Other expenses loom large in CSD’s future.

The new 3-5 school has a budget of $22 million, and the school system has only spent $46,177 to date.

The school system budgeted $21.8 million for Decatur High renovation and has spent $7.3 million to date.

The system budgeted $15.6 million for Renfroe Middle renovations and has spent $8 million to date.

Here is the full breakdown of how CSD is spending the bond proceeds, provided by the school system:

Bond exp ytd Sheet1