District 204 transfers funds in anticipation of court ruling

A judge's ruling, already on delay, may not come soon enough for a district about to pay off a new $124 million high school.

Indian Prairie Unit District 204 trustees approved a $5 million transfer of funds Monday in anticipation of a DuPage County judge's ruling on whether or not the district is responsible for about $5.2 million in attorneys fees being sought by the Brach-Brodie property owners.

"We're simply asking the board to temporarily loan $5 million to the operation and maintenance fund to the capitol project fund through the issuance of bonds in a February or March time frame at which time that temporary loan would be repaid," said Assistant Superintendent for Finance Dave Holm. "This is a better approach than to simply guess what the outcome of the trial would be and to have the risk of overestimating or underestimating what that outcome may be."

The district, which includes portions of Naperville, Aurora, Bolingbrook and Plainfield, already owns 25 acres of the Brach-Brodie site at 75th Street and Commons Drive in Aurora and intended to purchase an additional 55 acres of the property for the 3,000-student Metea Valley High School.

Those plans fell through in September 2007, however, when a jury set the price of the land at $31 million - about $17 million more than the district anticipated.

The district is asking for claims of up to $3 million to be stricken from those made by the Brodie Trust and $2.2 million from the Brach Trust.

"The final decision in that case, which we may not know until February, factors into the amount we will need to borrow (for the final bond issuance for Metea Valley). We are recommending that we issue the bonds in February/March after the outcome of the case is known," Holm said. "In order to accomplish this we would need to borrow from ourselves to cover construction costs until the bond proceeds are received."

Trustee Christine Vickers opposed the transfer, as she has every other financial decision regarding the high school, saying that such a large transfer made her nervous.