Borrowing

District Earns Favorable Interest Rate

The West Bend School District has completed borrowing the $106.25 million for all projects related to the facilities referendum approved by the district voters in November 2024. 

In April 2025, the first phase of borrowing for the referendum projects, $80 million in general obligation bonds, was completed with an interest rate of 4.42 percent. The remaining $26.25 million bonds were sold at 3.00 percent in January 2026. The final blended interest rate for the full amount of $106.25 million is 4.22 percent. 

Just as with a home mortgage, interest is charged when borrowing money. Leading up to the referendum vote, the West Bend School District provided an estimated “total cost” of the referendum which included potential interest paid on funds borrowed, and placed the “total cost” at $165.45 million. Now that favorable interest rates have been locked in for both borrowing events, a cost avoidance of $10.7 million, or an 18 percent reduction in interest from the “total cost” projection, was realized. The savings for taxpayers could potentially be increased in future years through refinancing or early repayment of the debt, strategies the West Bend School District has a long history of utilizing. 

The favorable interest rates were achieved partially due to Standards & Poor (S&P) holding the district’s credit rating at the AA level after being upgraded from AA- in March 2025. Having an AA rating places the West Bend School District’s credit rating in the top 19 percent of school districts in Wisconsin that are rated by S&P. 

S&P cited several reasons that the district was deserving of this strong credit rating, including:

● Five consecutive years of positive operations despite declining enrollment

● Comprehensive financial policies including monthly budget monitoring and well-formulated assumptions using external data sources

● Annually updated long-term capital and financial planning

● Adherence to established fund balance thresholds

● Robust long-term financial and capital planning practices