Members of the Limestone County School Board were split Tuesday over a decision to borrow money to pay off what the school system owes Apple for Macbook laptops.

The board ultimately approved a resolution to borrow more than $2.2 million from First National Bank at its regularly scheduled meeting. Superintendent Dr. Tom Sisk told board members the loan would provide “significant savings” to the school system.

The loan would pay off an existing loan with Apple by the end of the month. The board would then repay lender First National Bank over a period of seven years, as opposed to repaying Apple over five years.

First National Bank provided a fixed interest rate of 2.29 percent, as opposed to Apple’s 3.49 percent. Finance officer Ann Swanner said it would free up and save taxpayers about $100,000 of cash flow each quarter.

Last month, board members were presented a plan to pay the Apple loan off in quarterly payments using funds from the school system’s “PSF Fund,” proceeds from the Mooresville-Belle Mina property, TVA-in-lieu-of-tax monies and revenue from the Connections Education virtual school.

Swanner said that plan changed because she found out she could get a better deal through a refinance with First National Bank.

“That was my primary concern. The money we could save and the interest rate played a lot into it and getting it done in a timeframe that a bank would work with us,” she said. “We wanted a dollar amount that wouldn’t change. I didn’t want something that three years down the the road, the interest rate would go up.”

The school system chose to go with First National Bank instead of looking at other financial institutions because the system has previous experience with the bank. Swanner said the bank won previous bids for school buses and water and sewer maintenance projects, in addition to previous loan restructuring.

The school system had two payments due to Apple this summer. Though Apple agreed not to charge a late fee, Swanner didn’t want to delay the payments.

Board member Ronald Christ voiced concern at the meeting that the new rate was more than the original Apple lease interest rate, which would cause the board to spend $174,236 more over time.

Swanner said after the meeting the Apple interest rate changed several times.

Christ asked if other alternatives had been looked at to make sure the school system wasn’t spending more money in the long run. When board members took a vote, Christ opposed the motion.

“(Board members) didn’t get another choice,” he said following the meeting. “(First National Bank) was all we had to vote on. There was no alternative.”

Christ later said he felt like the board needed to alleviate the money crunch now by checking other areas where money could be saved instead of paying the lump sum on the lease.

Board member Earl Glaze abstained from the vote. He said after the meeting that since there was a disagreement about whether the loan would actually save the school board money, he thought the issue should have been tabled until it was further clarified.