SWIC board issues $10 million in bonds, hires three

The Southwestern Illinois College in Belleville approved issued $10 million in bonds to help the school pay its bills amid the state budget crisis.

School financial leaders said the fund is needed to help SWIC pay its bills while it waits for months late payments from the state government.

“We’re some seven months into the fiscal year and we’re expecting about $13 million for the whole thing,” SWIC Vice President Bernie Ysursa said. “So that puts them about $7 million behind.”

SWIC controller Melissa Roche said the working cash funds, by law, can only be used to keep bills current. They can’t be used for capital improvement projects, salaries or any other new expenditures.

Ysursa said the state will pay about $650,000 in interest over the five year life of the bonds. But he said the school will not increase spending or its tax levy based on the bonds.

The new bonds replace similar ones issued in 2010 that expired in December.

Hired were:

▪ Tim Young as senior analyst - statistics and analytics at a salary of $60,000

▪ Cindy Shanks as assistant instructional technology manager at a salary of $44,000

▪ Haley Thompson as SWIC Foundation Executive Director at a salary of $81,500

In other business:

▪  The board voted to approve accepting the fiscal year 2015 audit report

▪ Brandon Borkowski was sworn in as a public safety officer who will work at the Sam Wolf Granite City Campus.

This story was originally published January 20, 2016 at 1:05 PM with the headline "SWIC board issues $10 million in bonds, hires three."