The Lindbergh Board of Education voted 6-0 tonight — Tuesday — to approve a resolution authorizing the sale of general obligation bonds totaling roughly $32.65 million to refund bonds issued in 2007.

Board Treasurer Kara Gotsch was absent.

As proposed, the sale of the bonds, scheduled for Feb. 11, is expected to save taxpayers $1.6 million, Chief Financial Officer Charles Triplett told the Board of Education.

In a separate matter Tuesday night, representatives of the District Growth Committee presented a report to the school board recommending a sixth elementary school be constructed on the nearly 10-acre Dressel School site at 10255 Musick Road.

The Board of Education will discuss the committee’s report during a work session and special meeting beginning at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 16, in the Administration Building, 4900 S. Lindbergh Blvd.

Look for complete coverage in the Jan. 23 issue of the Call.

A resolution authorizing the sale of general obligation bonds totaling roughly $32.65 million to refund bonds issued in 2007 was scheduled to be considered earlier this week by the Lindbergh Board of Education.

The board was set to consider the resolution Tuesday night — after the Call went to press.

As proposed, the sale of the bonds, scheduled for Feb. 11, is expected to save taxpayers $1.6 million, according to Chief Financial Officer Charles Triplett.

At the recommendation of the district’s independent financial adviser, Joy Howard of WM Financial Strategies, the Board of Education voted last month to begin the process of refunding bonds that were issued in 2007 as part of Proposition R 2006.

“… Now almost seven years later, the 2007 bonds are available for advance refunding,” Triplett told the board in December. “We’ve refunded a number of bonds in the past and saved taxpayers more than $5 million …”

By taking advantage of lower interest rates and refinancing bonds in 1998, 2001, 2004, 2008, 2010, 2012 and 2013, the district saved taxpayers a total of $5,315,736.

Triplett also noted that the only beneficiaries of the advance refunding will be district taxpayers.

“… The money that the district saves on that (the refunding) really is not district money. It’s the taxpayers’,” he said. “It’s money we do not collect from the taxpayers. We would adjust our debt-service tax rate downward because we don’t need to collect that money to pay off this interest.

“So that’s an excellent savings for the taxpayers in the community.”

In a separate matter Tuesday, representatives of the District Growth Committee were scheduled to present a report on how to address the school district’s aggressive enrollment growth.

The committee, by consensus, agreed in November to recommend a new elementary school be built on the nearly 10-acre Dressel School site, 10255 Musick Road.

The district closed on the $1.94 million purchase of the property in July 2011.

From 2007-2008 to 2012-2013, the district’s residential enrollment increased by 569 students. Lindbergh’s official enrollment for the current school year is 6,115 students, which exceeded the district’s projections by 50 students.

From 2013 to 2018, district officials project residential enrollment will increase by 464 students.