ALPENA — The Alpena Public Schools Board of Education took another step Monday toward asking voters to approve a bond sale for facilities renovations by approving an application to the state for preliminary qualification of bonds.

Superintendent John VanWagoner said the district has worked with Public Financial Management of Ann Arbor to go through the numbers of potental property tax rates and the amount of money each rate would generate. PFM has also worked with Alpena to tighten up the scope of the work that is needed at the district’s buildings.

The preliminary qualification application allows the Michigan Treasury to go through the scope and see if any numbers wrong or if there are things that need to be corrected. VanWagoner said that is a 30-day process.

VanWagoner said Monday that, if the Treasury does come back to Alpena at some point during the 30 days saying they agree with the language and other items, it will be brought to the board for them to take a look at.

For months, the district has discussed selling bonds — to be repaid by property owners through increased taxes — to raise funds for district-wide renovations and upgrades, but the board has not made any final decisions.

The current scope of the renovations project is a little less money than what the district had originally planned. The work is now around $63 million, which could require around 1.9 mills in property tax. That would cost the owner of a $100,000 house about $95 a year.

“I am making the recommendation for us to essentially adopt that 1.9-mill increase in the Treasury application, and I want to again reiterate this does not bind the board still to moving forward with a bond,” VanWagoner said.

The board has until early February to decide if it wants to go for a bond in May. If the board does decide to go for a bond, ballot language would have to be submitted to the county.

The money from a bond would fund renovations to buildings throughout the district, with the largest projects being major renovations to Alpena High School and a focus on security upgrades to the schools. The district would also tear down the existing Ella White Elementary School and build a new, similarly sized, two-story building there.

The board approved the application unanimously and it will be mailed to Treasury today.

Julie Goldberg can be reached at 989-358-5688 or jgoldberg@thealpenanews.com. Follow her on Twitter @jkgoldberg12.