The Greene County School Board has decided to push forward on increasing the amount of money earmarked for a project.

As last week’s meeting, the Board agreed to have OPN Architects investigate additional renovations that could be made to turn the current high school into a middle school. Superintendent Tim Christensen says the decision was based on the state legislature extending the expiration date of the Secure an Advanced Vision for Education (SAVE) funds to 2051. Christensen notes that SAVE funds are the state’s one-cent sales tax used for school projects.

“It’s not property tax funds. This is the SAVE funds that school districts get that they can use for infrastructure. There’s more of those funds available. Again we would need to borrow against future proceeds. So it would require some bonding, but again it’s not (property) tax money.”

With the sunset extension for SAVE, the Board decided to increase the amount of those funds for the middle school project from the original amount of $4.5 million. Christensen talks about comparing the two figures.

“If we would bond for 15 years, about $7.5 million looks like a good figure that we could bond, rather than the $4.5 million which would give us an additional $3 million to do work again at the high school to be converted into a middle school.”

However, Christensen notes before plans are finalized, the voters in the school district would need to approve a revenue purpose statement. It is a description of what the district plans to spend SAVE funds on. That election would be this fall.