Their district dissolved, Buena Vista residents must repay $6.6 million in school debts

Their district dissolved, Buena Vista residents must repay $6.6 million in school debts | MLive.com
BUENA VISTA TOWNSHIP, MI — Buena Vista Township businesses and residents will repay the defunct school district's debts for at least two years.

Although the Saginaw County district has been closed since July 2013, it still has $6.5 million in debt. The district has a projected deficit of $4.05 million and $2.5 million remaining on a bond voters passed in 2005. All that money must be repaid to the state.

Next year, district residents also must decide whether renew a tax on businesses and secondary homes to keep whittling away at the deficit. 

“It’s going to be a tough sell to renew a millage for a school district that doesn’t exist,” said Chris Frank, Saginaw Intermediate School District assistant director of finance and business operations.

If voters reject the millage, he said, the Michigan Treasury could tax all residents in the jurisdiction of the former school district to complete the debt collection. The state islegally required to collect the money the Buena Vista School District borrowed.

Buena Vista School District dissolved in July 2013 at the order of the Michigan Legislature after a financial crisis left it unable to pay teachers.

The school district closed for two weeks in May 2013 as the state and Saginaw ISD scrambled to find a way to educate Buena Vista students and return enough funding to the district to complete the school year.

The state released up to $460,000 in the state per-pupil funding, allowing Buena Vista to provide classes to the about 300 students who remained.