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School district eyes savings with bond reissue

Warren County School District officials can save more than $100,000 by reissuing a bond series.

Jamie Doyle of PFM Financial Advisors advised the board Monday that reissuing a bond series could save upwards of $100,000.

“This is the first time in over a decade that you’ve been able to invest at or greater than the rate that you’re able to borrow at,” Doyle said.

The district’s 2018 bond series of $8,435,000 is approaching its call date. She said interest rates are below “historic rates” and described current market conditions as an “inverted yield curve environment” in which short-term bonds pay higher yields than longer-term bonds.

Currently, “investors want to park their money somewhere nice and safe,” Doyle said. “It doesn’t get much safer than Pennsylvania municipal bonds.”

The percentages wouldn’t have to change much for the district to benefit.

“This is a super-sensitive refunding,” Doyle said. “One-tenth of one percent moves almost $100,000.”

According to the board’s past practices, Doyle said she was prepared to offer the refunding at a competitive internet auction.

“We’re suggesting a minimum net savings target of $100,000,” she said. “Interest rates permitting, we’d be in position to lock in savings at the end of June.”

The principal on the district’s many debts adds up to $76.2 million.

The total debt, including interest, was about $88.5 million as of early May, with outside assistance paying for about $74 million.

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