In December of 2009 the Christian Day School Building Committee submitted our loan request to a local bank. What you may or may not have heard is that late in December we received word back that they could not grant us the requested loan. While the bank noted many things we did have going in our favor, (namely, a low loan to value ratio, some reserves on hand, detailed planning, and a loan payment coming from tuition rather than offerings) they cited the following reasons for not granting the loan: 1) The size of the loan is too high in proportion to the number of giving units in ourcongregation. (For a loan of $1M they like to see 100 to 150 giving units instead of the 75 we currently have, and of which 50 regularly give.) 2) They like their borrowers to have at least 20% of the project cost in cash on hand insteadof gifts in kind , committed grant dollars, and Builders for Christ savings. Though this could be negotiable if other criteria were met. 3) The expense and revenue is too close. That is the cash flow is too tight. They look to see that receipts exceed expenses in a positive trend for several years in a row. Neither church (offerings minus expenses) nor PLELC (tuition revenues minus expenses) have had such a trend. In light of this, the committee recommended to the voters that the school project be tabled until such time as these challenges can be met. They also recommended that all pre-registration fees be returned to parents who paid and that all donor gifts be returned upon request. Otherwise, the funds will be kept on deposit to gain interest until the project is cancelled or completed. It should be noted that Gethsemane's policy is that interest received from all Special Funds is deposited into the General Fund. On February 28th, the voters' approved the above recommendations. Thanks for your prayers and your generous support of the school. We'll see what God has in store for the future of the project! Your servant in Him, Pastor Rob |