School to refinance 2004 bond debt
Trinity Standard -

TRINITY – A move that is expected to save at least $343,000 over the next 17 years was given a green light Monday by the Trinity School Board. During their regular meeting, the board authorized Superintendent Dave Plymale to move forward with refinancing the school’s 2004 bond debt when at least a 6.5 percent savings could be achieved on the interest debt. Lewis Wilkes of Coastal Securities, the school’s financial consultants, told the board the issue was the record low interest rates now available. When the school district sold the bonds to build the Trinity Middle School Campus in 2004, the interest rate they were given was 4.3 percent. Last week, interest rates for the school bonds had dropped to 2.41 percent, which would generate a savings of 9.18 percent or $464,000 over the life of the bonds. Currently, the school district owns just over $4.3 million in principal on he 2004 bonds. Wilkes said it would take about a month to get the paperwork completed to refinance the bonds and no one could be sure what interest rate would be available at that time. Under the plan approved Monday night, Wilkes will proceed with the paperwork but would hold off on issuing the refinanced bonds until given permission by Plymale. The board instructed the superintendent that they wanted a minimum of a 6.5 percent savings before he could issue that permission. “We hope to get a much higher figure – 9 or even 11 percent – but there is no way we can know what the interest rates will be a month or two from now,” Wilkes said. “By setting it up now, we can wait to ‘pull the trigger’ until we get the number you want.” He cautioned that by setting a minimum savings of 9 percent, the board could “nix” the deal if interest rates did not drop down to the current 2.3 percent range again. “I feel 6.5 percent is a reasonable target number. If we can get a higher savings rate, great, but you will still be saving money over the life of the bonds.”