WESTLAKE, Ohio - The Westlake City Schools will sell about $24.4 million in bonds Feb. 22 to help fund construction of a new elementary school, and community members will have an opportunity to buy some of those bonds.
The district will be holding a competitive sale of the bonds to a large group of underwriters who will submit bids. The winning bidders will purchase the bonds and in turn sell them to their clients. As part of the sale, the Westlake school district wants the underwriters to offer Westlake school district residents an opportunity to purchase some of the bonds.
"Typically, when an underwriter buys bonds, they will go to their clients and sell them to get their money back," Westlake schools CFO and Treasurer Todd Hopkins said. "We are asking the underwriters to give our residents, our community, the first option to buy the bonds."
Allowing residents an opportunity to purchase bonds to finance construction of a new elementary school gives residents access to a local investment - one where they can drive by and see their investment at work, Hopkins said.
"We want to give an option for the community to invest in a project they approved, is a benefit to the community, and where they can see the tangible effects," Hopkins said.
On Feb. 22, after the underwriters are selected, the district will open a one- to two-hour window to provide residents the opportunity to purchase bonds. Potential buyers must be available by phone on that day, and the bonds will be sold in $5,000 minimum increments.
Anyone interested in buying Westlake City Schools' tax-exempt bonds should contact the treasurer's office by Feb. 20 with their name and phone number at 440-835-6301 or email hopkinst@wlake.org.
In December, the district sold another $9.2 million in bonds for the same project, but the district was not able to offer a similar opportunity at that time for residents to purchase bonds.
The issuance of these two rounds of bonds, valued at a total of $33.6 million, stems from the passage of a bond issue in November for construction of a new pre-kindergarten through fourth-grade elementary school building.
Standard & Poor's recently notified the district it has an AA+/stable long-term rating on its debt, according to the district.
The new school will replace the district's four aging elementary schools - Bassett Elementary, Dover Elementary, Hilliard Elementary and Holly Lane Elementary - with one new school
The school district has two options for locating the new elementary building - the site of the current Parkside administration building on Hilliard Road and city-owned land on Center Ridge Road next to the Westlake Porter Public Library. The district has been in talks with the city concerning a land exchange for the Center Ridge Road property.
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