It's official - the 75-year-old structure of Fair Street International Baccalaureate World School is coming down.

The Gainesville City Schools board voted at its meeting Friday to approve a parameters bond resolution that got the ball rolling on the Fair Street project.

"It gets you started with the actual issuance of the bond," Cory Kirby, an attorney with Harben, Hartley & Hawkins LLP told board members. "It basically sets the ceiling for this transaction."

The general obligation bond, which is similar to a loan, will allow the school board to start its special local option sales tax projects before it begins collections in the fourth quarter of 2012.

Some of the projects voters approved for SPLOST IV include paying off debt on Gainesville Middle School and purchasing teaching tools. The Fair Street project, however, needed to begin as soon as possible, and board members did not want to wait until they had the cash to pay for it up front.

The SPLOST money, instead of paying for the projects outright, will instead pay back the general obligation bonds.