Los Angeles Unified School District construction and facilities officials have requested issuing $3.4 billion of long-term debt in fiscal 2008-2009, according to Timothy S. Rosnick, director of the district’s treasury branch.
Rosnick said previously that the LAUSD planned to issue as much as $1 billion of general obligation bonds in the fall, warning that the plans were not yet finalized.
But the school district’s facilities department thinks it can spend much more next year. It requested $3.2 million of GO funds and about $200 million for the district’s certificate of participation program for the coming fiscal year.
The request for a much larger amount of construction funding during the next fiscal year is part of a provisional budget the Board of Education will consider June 24.
The LAUSD, the nation’s second-largest school district with almost 700,000 students, is in the midst of a $20.9 billion capital improvement plan that includes four voter-approved general obligation bond authorizations. The district has $5.7 billion of authorization remaining under the four measures.
The school board has begun to hold meetings on a plan to seek voter approval for fifth authorization that would increase the building program’s size by another $3.2 billion.
The district’s GO debt is rated AA-minus by Standard & Poor’s, Aa3 by Moody’s Investors Service, and A-plus by Fitch Ratings.
The district plans to issue about $500 million of revenue anticipation notes in August if the Los Angeles County Office of Education approves the sale, Rosnick said.
