The Blue Valley Board of Education voted Oct. 13 to approve a sale resolution that authorizes district staff, its financial adviser and bond counsel to proceed with a public sale of general-obligation bonds tied to the 2023 voter-approved package and to pursue a refunding component for outstanding 2015 bonds if market conditions produce taxpayer savings.

Chief Financial Officer Jeremy McFadden introduced the proposal and the board heard details from Shelby Exposito of Gilmore & Bell, the district’s bond counsel, and David Arterberry of Stifel Nicholas, the district’s financial adviser. The resolution authorizes two potential components: issuing the remaining bond authorization from the 2023 election — $101,250,000 of “new money” to fund construction projects — and issuing refunding bonds to repay callable 2015 series if doing so yields net savings.

Arterberry said the district’s 2015A bonds carried an outstanding balance of about $43.0 million and the 2015B series about $12.2 million and that, based on then-current market rates, refunding could produce net savings on the order of $1.1 million to $1.2 million over the next 10 years; he cautioned that actual savings would depend on market conditions on the day of sale. The plan described at the meeting was to post a notice of sale and obtain ratings, sell on Nov. 10 and, if the sale proceeds as planned, present a bond resolution at the Nov. 10 evening meeting and close the financing on Dec. 3.

During the meeting Shelby Exposito said $150 million of the 2023-authorized bonds had already been issued; $101.25 million remained to fund additional projects. Exposito advised that the refunding component would only occur if the market produced an economically meaningful savings on the day of sale; if not, the district would cancel the refunding portion and proceed with the new-money series only.

A motion to approve the sale resolution passed unanimously. The resolution directs staff and the district’s advisers to prepare the offering documents, pursue credit ratings and proceed with the sale process described at the meeting.

Background and next steps: If the refunding moves forward, the district would use proceeds from a 2025B series to redeem the callable 2015 bonds after closing. The district’s advisers indicated the 2025A bonds (new-money series) would be repaid over a 20-year structure with an average life near 12 years, subject to final sale decisions.