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Radnor Township School Board authorizes up to $50 million in borrowing for Ithan Elementary, board eyes $25 million sale this year
Summary
The Radnor Township School Board on May 26 approved a parameters resolution enabling up to $50 million in borrowing to complete the new Ithan Elementary School and signaled advisers may seek to sell about $25 million this year to lock favorable market conditions. The vote was unanimous, 9–0.
Radnor Township School Board on Tuesday approved a parameters resolution authorizing administration and financial advisers to proceed with the remaining borrowing for the new Ithan Elementary School, up to a maximum of $50,000,000, and discussed borrowing $25,000,000 in calendar year 2026 to lock in current market conditions.
The board approved the parameters resolution by roll call after a lengthy presentation from business officials and municipal finance advisers. "We've borrowed about $30,000,000 towards the project, and at this point we're committed to doing the project, and we have to borrow the rest of the money," said the district's project lead, who explained the recommendation to authorize a flexible borrowing plan.
PFM financial adviser Garrett Moore told the board that financing decisions should be driven by the project's cash flow needs rather than market timing. "The project itself needs to drive the financing, not the other way around," he said, describing the firm's monitoring of forward interest‑rate measures and cash‑flow alignment.
Board members and advisers discussed tradeoffs between bank‑qualified tranches and non‑bank‑qualified borrowings. Administration described an original plan to borrow $10 million as a bank‑qualified tranche in 2027 but said market conditions made a $25 million borrowing in 2026 a defensible option to hedge against potential rate increases. Advisers and underwriters also flagged municipal market dynamics around June 1 redemptions as a favorable sales window.
The parameters resolution does not itself spend money; it authorizes officials and advisers to structure and sell the debt within limits set by the board and return with sale results and final documents. The item passed on a roll‑call vote with nine affirmative votes.
What happens next: With the parameters resolution in place, district staff and financial advisers may proceed to prepare a bond sale when they judge market conditions appropriate and will report back to the board with the sale results and recommended final terms.
Provenance: The discussion introducing the resolution began when the chair presented the priority action at the start of the board's debt discussion and ended with the roll‑call vote approving the parameters resolution.
