New Bremen to save more than $1 million in interest expenses
NEW BREMEN — School board officials celebrated financial savings and an upgraded bond rating Wednesday night during the New Bremen Board of Education meeting.
In December, the New Bremen School district refinanced a portion of the original bonds used to construct the new K-6 building.
That resulted in $1,742,564 in interest savings which will flow back to the taxpayers in the form of a bond millage eduction. The exact bond millage reduction will be determined by the county auditor, but the district is working with the county auditor to potentially reduce the bond millage by a total of 1.160 mills over a two-year period.
“It is our understanding that the country auditor plans to reduce the district’s bond millage by 1.10 mills in tax year 2022,” said New Bremen Local Schools Treasurer Jill Ahlers. “Thanks to the refunding, we will be able to reduce the bond millage by an additional 0.50 mills in tax year 2023 assuming the districts’s tax base remains stable.”
Mike Burns, the managing director of Baird, who is the district’s bond underwriter said the 11.60 mill reduction is positive for the community.
“[A] 1.60 mill reduction is very significant and positive for the New Bremen LSD community,” said Burns. “This will result in an annual tax reduction of approximately $56 per $100,000 home.”
In addition to saving a significant amount of interest expense over the remaining term of the bonds, the district was also able to receive a rating upgrade from A1 to Aa3. According to Moody’s Investor Service, an “A1” rated issuer is considered “good quality” and “Aa3” rated issuer is considered “high quality.”
“We are very proud that we achieved a bond rating upgrade to “Aa3,” said Superintendent Jason Schrader. “Not only did it help us sell the bonds at lower interest rates which increased the savings for our taxpayers, but as importantly it demonstrates how strong the school is managed financially and the strength of our community including our election history. We have a lot to be proud of.”
Ahlers and Schrader prepared a rating presentation and presented via Zoom meeting to Moody’s Investor Service in November.
For additional information and questions, please contact Schrader or Ahlers at 419-6298606.
Also Wednesday, Schrader said the district is in the early design stages of constructing a bus garage.
“During our K-6 building project, we were doing some larger scale, long-term planning and we knew that in the future we would have liked to have a bus facility,” he said. “In our site plan, we designed it to be going out next to where the buses are currently parked at. We were able to set aside some funds so we would have those available.”
Schrader said the district will work with Garmann Miller to design the facility and plans to meet with them in January to do a needs assessment for the design.
The board gave Schrader the go-ahead to move forward with the design phase for the building.
The district currently runs six routes and has a total of nine buses.
“We’re wanting to try and design something that meets our capacity needs,” said Schrader. “It may not be completely finished, but it’s something we can grow in to.”