Berkley School District Refunds Bonds, Saves Taxpayers $1,976,169

The Berkley School District Board of Education announces the successful sale of its 2025 Refunding Bonds. The Bonds will be used for the purpose of refunding the School District’s outstanding 2015 Bonds and to pay the costs of issuing the bonds. When taking into account factors such as principal, interest and bond premium/discounts the District refunded bonds with a present value of $40,983,043 for new bonds with a present value of $37,606,874. The District also made an additional transfer of $1,400,000 from current debt service reserves for a net savings of $1,976,169. With the 2025 Refunder savings considered, the District will have saved $5,070,000 in cumulative savings from the 1999, 2005, 2009 and now 2015 refundings.

In preparing to sell the 2025 Refunding Bonds, the School District requested that Standard & Poor’s Rating Services ("S&P") evaluate the School District's credit quality. S&P assigned the School District the long-term rating of 'AA' and an 'A+' underlying rating. The rating agency cited the School District's strong per capita market value and income levels, stable enrollment trends and good reserve levels in their rationale for rating the School District at this level.

The School District's financing was conducted by the Michigan investment banking office of the brokerage firm, Huntington Securities, Inc., the financial advising firm, PFM, and the law firm serving as bond counsel, Thrun Law Firm, P.C. The School District's 2025 Refunding Bonds were sold at a true interest rate of 3.56% with a final maturity date of 2040.