By Janine Davis Record Staff WriterThe Warren County R-III School Board has decided not to place a no-tax bond issue on the April 7 ballot.Instead, members chose to delay the decision for a year to optimize financing and allow more time to thoroughly evaluate needs.The board’s decision came last Thursday after representatives from the district’s municipal bond underwriter, L.J. Hart & Company, presented various scenarios for a bond issue along with information on refinancing the remaining $10 million callable portion of the district’s series 2006 bonds.The refunding would capture savings from current low interest rates, adding “new money” to deepen the district’s financial capacity for a larger no-tax bond issue in 2016 to address facility and other needs.“We’ve been looking at a bond issue and where we are financially if we were to move forward in April 2015 with a $5 million issue,” said R-III Superintendent Dr. Jim Chandler during last Thursday’s meeting. “We asked (L.J. Hart) to provide some projections on where the district could be if we waited one more year, which would give us a little more time in looking at other needs to prioritize and also see if that would increase our buying power.”Late last year, the board began discussions with district architects about plans to retrofit buildings with new entrances to provide greater security for students and staff.Combined with practice and general purpose space additions adjacent to the high school gym, the new security improvements would cost approximately $5 million. It was proposed the costs could be covered through a no-tax-increase bond issue in April 2015, officials said at the time.As administrators and the board engaged architects in examining changes to tighten security, they also asked L.J. Hart to assess bonding capacity to pay for the project.At the November school board meeting, a representative from L.J. Hart told the board that the general obligation bonding capacity without an increase in the current debt service levy would be about $5 million based on timing for the April 2015 election. He said he planned on a 15-year repayment plan based on the assumption interest rates would remain fairly steady.This month the underwriters came back to provide additional facts and considerations as the board faced a Jan. 20 deadline for making its decision about having a bond measure on the April ballot. Refinancing the 2006 series bonds, which carry an average interest rate of 4.75 percent and become callable at no penalty March 1 this year, offers an attractive option in savings, said advisers.“Refinancing the series 2006 bonds gives the district about $1.5 million of savings in interest expense which helps facilitate a larger size bond issue,” Larry J. Hart reported. “So a year later with a refund savings the district could pursue a $10 million new-money bond issue.”“This is a significant jump, and would allow us more flexibility in projects and plan time for those,” said Chandler, who added he would like to put together a committee to help identify other pressing projects beyond building security.The board voted to proceed with advance refunding of the 2006 bonds in March to lock in a lower interest rate that Hart said is about 93 percent of what the district could expect if it waited until the end of the year and if rates stay the same.But amid concern that interest rates may rise between now and the end of the year, the school board decided to take what Hart referred to as a “bird-in-hand” approach to avoid the risk of losing ground.“I’m conservative — I always expect the rate to rise,” said Board Treasurer Bill Hawley.Board President Teresa Scott added, “This makes a lot of sense.”R-III will wait a year on bond measure