The Bainbridge Island School District board voted to approve two motions to help provide building funds and save taxpayer money.

One move was to vote to return money remaining from the 2006 bond levy back to the taxpayers. An approximate estimate of $800,000 will be put into the debt services fund to reduce taxes for taxpayers for 2011.

Supt. Faith Chapel said the surplus was achieved in part through careful management of the projects the bond paid for – the renovation of the 200 building and other projects – and grants and interest payments helped defray building costs.

Chapel said while she’s glad the district can return the money to taxpayers, she also said they didn’t have many choices to work with as they are limited by state law and district policy as to how they can use the bond money.

“It does get complicated,” she said. “People say when they find out we’re returning money, ‘well why are you doing that when you’re asking us for more money?’ But bonds are only used for construction and renovation. We can’t use them for teachers, day-to-day operations or equipment unless its related to building.”

The board also approved of the sale of $14 million of qualified school construction bonds.

The bond, created by the federal government through the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, is a taxable interest-free bond that can be used for the construction, rehabilitation or repair of public schools. It can also be used to purchase land and build new schools on the land as well.

The passage of the capital bond last year paved the way for Bainbridge to apply for the bonds, which were approved in June.

The school district was one of 13 in the state that was approved for bonds, with a cap of $17.5 million.

Chapel said they went through the process of selling the bonds Thursday morning, with approval of the sale at the school board meeting that night.

The savings accrued through the sale of the bond are estimated to be $4.9 million to the debt services fund over the 17-year life of the bond. The school district also estimates a savings of $1.9 million to the debt services fund through the approval of Build America bonds last year.

School districts awarded the bonds must issue and sell them within 150 days of approval.

Chapel said they’ll put the funds toward the Wilkes Elementary remodel, an energy conservation project and several other renovation projects for various schools.

“The good news is, with voter approval of our bond measure last November, it has put us in a position to realize the benefits of qualifying for the school construction bonds,” she said.