Moody’s gives East Williston school district good grade

Noah Manskar

The East Williston school district’s bonds have a strong outlook since about half of them were refinanced in September, according to Moody’s Investors Service.

The rating agency gave its second consecutive “Aa1” rating to the district’s $9.6 million bond package on Oct. 28, indicating the district is financially stable and can easily pay back investors.

Moody’s, a major credit rating group that assesses the stability of bonds around the world, cited the size of the district’s tax base and its residents’ “above-average” wealth in the rating decision.

This year, the rating also applies to the $5 million of those bonds that the district voted to refund on Sept. 21.

Refunding bonds is similar to refinancing a mortgage on a house, Assistant Superintendent for Business Jacqueline Pirro said.

The district issued the bond package in 2001, and first refunded it in 2005.

Interest rates have declined since then, so now it will re-sell $5 million worth of the bonds at a lower interest rate, which Pirro said will save the district about $50,000 a year.

The high rating from Moody’s means the district can get “favorable” interest rates when it takes that portion of the bonds to market again, Pirro said.

The “Aa1” rating is the second-highest on the Moody’s scale. 

To get the highest “Aaa” rating, the district’s tax base would need to grow from the current $2.1 billion to $8 billion, and its reserve fund would need to account for 30 percent of all its expenditures.

Share this Article