LOCS Superintendent Marion Ginopolis will regularly share thoughts and updates about district-related topics in The Review.

Financial health is a crucial principle and priority of the Lake Orion Community Schools Board of Education and Administration. Over the past eight years, one significant path to achieving that goal has been reducing LOCS’ Bonded Principal & Interest Bonded Debt.

One of the primary methods of doing this is by refunding that debt. The process of refunding is just like refinancing a mortgage, exchanging new, lower cost debt for the existing more expensive debt. Since 2012, we have refunded $135 million of debt and saved/cost-avoided $16 million for taxpayers. That success spurred LOCS Assistant Superintendent for Business and Finance John Fitzgerald to pursue another refunding this past week.

Based on Standard and Poor’s Global Ratings for credit program “AA” rating and A+ underlying rating for LOCS’s series 2019 unlimited-tax general obligation (GO) refunding bonds, on Tuesday, September 17, 2019, Lake Orion Community Schools successfully refinanced $16 million of existing School Loan Revolving Fund debt, saving/avoiding future costs of another $1.2 million dollars for taxpayers.

From S&P: “In our opinion, the district’s credit qualities are supported by its good fiscal practices and recent years of sustained stable operations and good reserves…”

The rating also reflects the stability of its local economy.”

In this case, the school district issued (taxable) lowering costing bonded debt and paid off existing more costly School Loan Revolving Fund loans (debt) with the proceeds.

Wondering about the new bonds being issued for the proposal passed in the November 2018 election? Those bonds cannot be refunded until 10 years pass from their issue date. However, the district will pursue refunding previous existing debt, although that is dependent on the interest rate environment and advice from the district financial advisor.

As a public school district, the community members are the primary stakeholders and serving their financial interests is an ongoing priority of the LOCS Board of Education and Administration.

If you have any questions related to the 2019 refunding, please contact Assistant Superintendent of Business and Finance John Fitzgerald at john.fitzgerald@lok12.org.