Finance committee hears PFM plan to restructure about $15.9 million of 2017 bonds

East Stroudsburg Area School District finance committee members heard a presentation July 14 from financial adviser PFM on an option to restructure about $15,875,000 of the district's 2017 double-A bond series and recommended the plan be presented to the full school board.

PFM senior adviser Jamie Doyle told the committee the option would reduce near-term debt service by roughly $8,800,000 in the current fiscal year but would stretch principal into later years, increasing total principal outstanding by about $4,286,000 and producing a present-value cost of approximately $530,513 under the firm’s conservative assumptions.

The proposal matters because it would lower the district’s near-term debt payments and provide short-term budget relief while pushing more of the principal into the 2030–2033 period, when several older issues were already scheduled to drop off. That drop-off window is the district’s chief opportunity to layer restructured principal back into the budget, PFM said.

Doyle outlined…