Dallas Center‑Grimes board approves up to $44 million bond sale; Robert Baird named winning bidder

The Dallas Center‑Grimes Community School District board unanimously approved accepting sealed bids for up to $44,000,000 in general obligation school bonds and passed a resolution directing the sale after a presentation by Piper Sandler.

Tim Oswald of Piper Sandler reviewed the 10 a.m. bond sale, reporting six bids and identifying Robert Baird as the winning bidder with a net effective interest rate of 4.13%. Oswald explained that each maturity carries its own interest and reoffering yield and that the district’s overall rate is the weighted sum of those pieces. He said the district made a small “resizing” to keep payments within the approved 2027 levy; that adjustment reduced the purchase price to $43,000,009.97 and increased net interest cost by roughly $47,000 over 20 years while leaving the effective rate essentially unchanged.

Oswald compared the results with a December sale, noting that yields on the longer maturities in today’s sale were slightly lower than in December. He told the board that, despite the close competition (the next-best bid, Oppenheimer, was within a few hundredths of a percent on yield), the revised net interest cost of the Baird bid remained modestly cheaper — about $300,000 over 20 years — and recommended awarding the issue to Baird.

Following the presentation the board moved to accept the sealed bids and then approved a resolution directing the sale of general obligation school bonds series 2026 (sale not to exceed $44,000,000). The roll-call votes on both motions were recorded as unanimous. Directors recorded as voting “aye” in the roll call were Director Dickinson, Director Fiala, Director Malmberg, Director Carpenter, Director Quandt and Director Vander Velden.

The resolution passed at the meeting will list the purchaser in the finalized sale documents. The district’s next regular board meeting was announced for Monday, May 18, 2026.