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The $4.3 million is coming from its capital referendum fund and has already been identified for this purpose. There is no additional funding for this action, District Director of Business Services Ross MacPherson said.

The district will still owe $1.4 million in its annual payment this year. However, the new payment schedule will kick in next year. Starting in 2027, the district will owe approximately $3.8 million annually through 2037, with one more year remaining in the payment schedule. Before defeasance, the district would have owed about $3.95 million annually through 2038, and at that time would have had one year remaining in the term. That is a result of interest going down to about $1.2 million from about $1.3 million.

After defeasance, the district’s final annual payment is expected to be in 2038, which is anticipated to be about $563,000, of which is about $8,300 of interest. Before defeasance, the interest would have been $87,600.

Instead of paying a total of about $9.7 million in interest, the district will pay about $8.2 million in interest by defeasing the debt.

The payment schedule was laid out by Baird, the district’s finance consulting company. Baird presented the plan to the board in February.

This will be the second time the board has approved defeasing some of the debt. The board paid down some of the debt in 2023, which saved the district about $1.5 million in interest.