EDMONTON — Metcalfe County school district officials took the first step Monday night toward building a new middle school.

The school board approved a building and grounds permit form or BG-1 to build a middle school for grades six through eight to the Kentucky Department of Education Division of Facilities Management.

The 65,873 square foot new school will be large enough for 400 students and will be attached to the back of the high school so the schools may share a kitchen and auditorium.

By approving the permit form, the board “is really going on record saying, we are interested in moving forward with the project,” said Dwight Salsbury with Ross, Sinclair and Associates. “It doesn’t obligate you all to move forward with the project, or to do the project. If six months down the road there is a some kind of world-wide catastrophe and the cost of construction triples and you decide you don’t want to do this, you can cancel this BG-1.”

Salsbury reviewed the school district’s bonding potential with school board members prior to the board’s approval of the permit form.

He pointed out that the school district has $690,000 in local funds available and its current bonding potential is slightly more than $6.4 million. He also noted that the district has “a fair amount of debt up through 2014.”

The debt was incurred when the board issued bonds in 1995 to finance the completion of the second phase of the high school and for the issue of bonds in 1996 to fund the installation of a new roof at Edmonton Elementary and Metcalfe County Middle School.

The district obtained three KISTA loans. The first one in 1999 for energy improvements. The second one in 1999 for improvements to the high shool and elementary school; and the third one, also in 1999, for a roof repair project.

It also refinanced 1992 bonds for the completion of Phase II at the high school in 2001, and for 1994 bonds for Phase III improvements to the high school in 2003. Also in 2003, it issued bonds to finance renovations to Edmonton Elementary.

“The thing we really want to look at is how can we increase that bonding potential and what can we do to be able to sell new bonds,” he said. “One of the ways you can increase your bonding potential is to increase the revenue side.”

Salsbury did some projections based on the levy of an additional 5 cent property tax.

“If you were to add another nickel you would have $869,000 in total local funds instead of $690,000,” he said. “With that additional nickel, with that additional $188,000 a year, you can now sell $11,370,000 in bonds.”

However, the school board opted not to consider levying an additional 5 cent tax.

It’s next step, after approving the permit, is to consider increasing the tax revenue the school district received in 2008 by 4 percent, which is estimated to generate, less the collection fees, about $89,000.

Should the board agree to levy the tax, the revenue will be deposited in the district’s building fund.

“We will match that with about $99,000 out of the General Fund to give the equivalent of a nickel, which is about $188,629,000,” said Pat Hurt, superintendent. “We’re not going for the nickel tax right now. That doesn’t mean we never will. It’s just at this time we have the means to match that and put that in the building fund.”

The school board opted not to go with the recallable nickel because of the economic situation the community in which the school district is located is currently facing.

The community has lost several jobs due to either the closing of manufacturing facilities or due to the lay off of several employees because of low production.

“We’ve been hit pretty hard,” Hurt said. “For us, and I think I speak for us, it’s a matter of timing. To move forward now we make the commitment ourselves and that’s because we’ve been watching our budget and living within our means. We’ve actually generated that and have the capacity to do that. We’re going to step out with what we have and reach out to our community if and when we need to.”

The school board is expected to set tax rates later this fall