The Botetourt School Board gave a tentative nod to the idea of generating additional funds by allowing cell towers on property the school division owns when it met for a special session and a work session last Thursday morning in Fincastle.
Superintendent John Busher had briefly discussed the idea a couple months ago, but Thursday had a proposal in hand that the board will likely approve when it meets July 13 in regular session.
The school division is partnering with Blue Ridge Towers— the same company the Board of Supervisors worked with to provide cell tower space in Blue Ridge Park.
Busher said the first site, and the only one considered in the initial contract, is on the Avery Road property behind the Blue Ridge Library off US 460.
The school division owns the property that was acquired for a new Blue Ridge area elementary school. The proposed site is in a corner of the property just off Avery Road.
If the supervisors approve the special exceptions permit (SEP) for a cell tower on the site with one cell provider, it will mean at least $1,200 a month in revenue for the school division, and $250 more for each additional antennae.
He said most towers have three to six cell carriers on them.
Those funds will go into the school division’s Capital Reserve Fund to be used for capital projects— essentially adding to the savings account that Busher wants in an effort to keep capital and major maintenance costs out of the annual operating budget.
Under an expected 30-year-lease (with 5-year renewals) that will contain a 3 percent cost of living increase each year, it could mean just over $999,000 for the school division, according to Director of Administration and Finance James Lyon.
Busher said Blue Ridge Towers is “ready to go” with the Avery site, and has a second school-owned site it wants to work on right away, too. Busher was cautious about moving too quickly on another site before seeing how the process works out on the first one.
Busher said the school division and tower companies have identified six or seven school sites that have potential long term.
For the school division, using school property has the added benefit of the schools and neighbors being able to tap into a wireless Internet service— a much less expensive endeavor than having fiber built to a school.
Changing technology is one reason cell providers are looking for additional tower cites. Busher said antennas on some high voltage electrical power towers aren’t usable any more with the new technology.
Busher said it will help the school division make plans for the future by providing a consistent funding source for capital projects.
Health Insurance
The School Board got an overview of proposed changes to the division’s health insurance for employees. The division’s health insurance is up for renewal in October, and Lyon has been working with the division consultant on a way to keep the division’s premium costs in line with the current year’s budget.
To do that, he told the board, they’ll have to change the health plan because of what has been a bad year for claims under the division’s self-insured plan.
Under the proposed plan, employees would still have an individual policy at no cost, but adding a child, a spouse or having a family plan would mean the add-on premiums for the employee will go up—modestly.
But so will deductibles, although Lyon said many employees would not necessarily have higher out-of-pocket expenses for normal health care needs. There would be higher out-of-pocket expenses for more severe health needs.
Some of the higher deductibles would be offset by some co-pays.
It is likely to be later in the year before the School Board acts on a contract for health insurance.
Under the scenario Lyon shared with the School Board, it’s going to cost the school division about $4.66 million for employees’ health insurance— up about $166,000. Of that, Lyon said the budget has $130,000 and can probably absorb the other $36,000.
If the school division had stuck with the same plan it currently has, it would have meant an 18.7 percent increase in premium costs— an additional $850,000 above the $4.5 million that is budgeted.
School Board member John Alderson noted that health insurance was costing the division over $5 million annually before it opted to go self-insured.
School Board member Scott Swortzel asked the administration to check to see how many employees are on another policy as a way to possibly provide more savings.
“Health insurance is what it is,” Lyon told the board. “It’s an expensive benefit for employees, and we’re trying to maintain a balance without shifting a burden to the employees.”
Busher said providing health insurance for employees is one of the division’s best recruiting tools, including recruiting bus drivers.
Energy Contract
The School Board, during a called special meeting the same morning, gave its approval to a financing package that the Board of Supervisors was also expected to approve at its afternoon meeting yesterday (Tuesday).
The package included 10 financial-related agreements that will allow the county to use a bond sale through the Virginia Resource Authority to do $6.3 million in energy upgrades to all of the county schools.
The two boards approved the Energy Savings Performance Contract (ESPC) through a program administered by the Virginia Division of Mineral Mining’s Division of Energy last month, and were waiting on bids for the financing.
The financing contracts are scheduled to close July 5, and will provide the county with a .82 percent effective interest rate on the bonds.
As soon as the financing is closed, Johnson Controls is scheduled to begin work on the energy upgrades that includes replacing much of the lighting in the schools and school-owned buildings.
Johnson Controls has guaranteed the school division will save at least $7.6 million in energy and operational savings over the next 15 years to offset the cost of making the energy efficiency upgrades.
— Ed McCoy