URBANA – The Urbana school board has agreed on financing the renovation of King Elementary School and air-conditioning a portion of Urbana High School when it issues bonds to be paid for with school facilities sales tax money.

But after an often-heated discussion, the board remained deadlocked Tuesday night on which of several other projects to proceed with first.

It will meet at 7 p.m. Aug. 31 to talk again about financing the various capital projects.

The board was considering two options Tuesday, one of which would have it issuing bonds for a new early childhood center and for adding central air-conditioning to the elementary schools. The second option would go forward with financing for projects at the middle and high schools that include improving the commons areas at both schools, improving the athletic fields, and renovating the high school auditorium. Both options included the King renovation and the high school air-conditioning work.

The board deadlocked 3-3 on which option it favored, with one board member, Peggy Patten, absent.

Board members Brenda Carter, Benita Rollins-Gay and Ruth Ann Fisher want to go forward right away with an early childhood center to replace the aging Washington Early Childhood school.

"If we put this off any longer, it is ridiculous," Carter said. "It makes me sick to my stomach these children, our future students, are in that building. ... The future students of Urbana have to go to a school that is constantly in need of repair."

But board members Steve Summers, Elaine Gehrmann and John Dimit didn't want to go forward with financing an early childhood center when the board hasn't agreed upon where the building will be or what it will look like.

"I'm very concerned this board has been at a deadlock with how to proceed with early childhood," Dimit said. "There is no debate among any of us that we need to proceed. It's just how to proceed."

He said the timing of the project depended on making a decision on its site and design, and he didn't believe the board could make those decisions soon enough to have a new building built within the three-year time frame once the bonds are issued.

Dimit said his biggest concern is trying to establish a budget for a building that hasn't been designed yet, and for which the board hasn't even agreed upon a site. He said a compromise position would have the board issuing bonds for the project as soon as it has a site, preliminary design and cost estimate for a building, rather than waiting several years to do another bond issue.

Summers also said he didn't want to go forward with central air-conditioning in the elementary schools before the district began renovation projects in the buildings, and then have to rework the ventilation systems when the schools were renovated.

After a discussion in which it was apparent the board members were split, Superintendent Preston Williams asked them to step back and "get away from some of the emotion as it relates to our children, our staff and our buildings. Let's take a look at the numbers and make a decision as to what you want to do."

Anne Noble of Stifel Nicolaus talked to the board about the financing for each option.

She said the board could issue $32 million for the first option, to be repaid over about 19 years. The financing would include some money from working cash bonds, as well as bonds to be repaid with sales tax money.

The second option would involve issuing $16 million right away for the projects at the secondary schools and King, with an estimated $14 million to be issued within the next few years to pay for a new early childhood center. The bonds would be repaid over a slightly shorter time – 16 years – and thus would save the district some money in interest expenses.

Both options would leave the district with some capacity to issue more building bonds in the future, in addition to working cash bonds.

"There are literally dozens of ways you could approach these two projects," Noble told the board. But the options she presented were the most fiscally prudent, she said.

The board also approved bids for work at King that includes site excavation, foundations, utility work and steel. It approved bids in the amount of $693,500, less than the $850,000 estimate for the work.

The district is advertising for bids for the remainder of the work at King, including building an 18,000-square-foot addition, and remodeling and adding air-conditioning in the existing building. The board is scheduled to act on those bid proposals at its Sept. 21 meeting.