The first sale of general obligation bonds for the middle school construction project was approved by the Washington Community School Board Wednesday night.

During their regular meeting Tim Oswald of Piper Sandler Companies presented three bids received for the sale of five million of the $25 million bond that was passed in a voter referendum this September. Oswald explained that the amount was later resized to $4.895 million in accordance with a current Internal Revenue Service rule, which he said is legal to do, and the bidders were informed of the district’s right to change the bond after bids were submitted. Oswald says this will not be an issue in 2022. Oswald says the bids went well, and he recommended the lowest bid from Robert W. Baird & Company of Milwaukee with a purchase price of about $5,017,142 and a true interest rate of about 1.98% over five years.

The board approved the sale, and District Business Manager Jeff Dieleman explained that they are selling the $25 million in smaller segments in order to get better interest rates and allow more banks to participate. Oswald says at this time they can sell $24.6 million of their bonds at the current interest rate and property taxes of $2.70 per $1,000 valued property. As construction costs have increased greatly in the last couple years, the board briefly discussed how the total project price tag may be affected, and if some portions of the project might be bid out at a time. They expect to discuss this further in December.