Friday, December 7, 2012

Hart Board Set to Authorize Bond Sale for Castaic High

The Hart School Board will consider authorizing a bond issuance to pay for construction of a high school in Castaic a bit earlier that it expected.

It doesn’t mean the high school will be built quicker; it means the financing could be in place in 2013 rather than 2014.

By way of background, Santa Clarita Valley voters approved a $300 bond measure (Measure SA) in 2008 to do a number of things: build the new high school, add theaters to certain existing high schools and rehabilitate other school facilities.

From that 2008 approval, in 2009 the school district issued $75 million in bonds and another $41.5 million in short-term notes (which it refinanced last year with a second bond issuance.)

Last month the school board authorized a third bond sale of $65 million, with the expectation of a fourth bond issuance in 2014 to fund the “vertical construction” of the Castaic school.

But according to a school district report, after talking it over with the county (which actually issues the bonds), and after reviewing the district’s needs and financing projections, school district administrators decided that the third and fourth issues should be rolled into one, to take advantage of “current historically low interest rates and fiscal certainty of funds.”

So on Wednesday, the school board will consider increasing the third bond issuance to $175 million from the previously approved $65 million, to include the money that will be needed to build a high school in Castaic.


Hart Board Set to Authorize Bond Sale for Castaic High