Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

State board endorses charter school bond

CARSON CITY — A first charter school bond has been endorsed by the Nevada Board of Finance.

The Somerset School wants $47 million to buy property and buildings it is leasing at its four campuses in Clark County. Selling 30-year bonds through the state Department of Business and Industry will save $200,000 to $300,000 a year, officials said.

A law was approved in 2013 to allow charter schools to use a state procedure to use the bonding capacity. It does not affect the state’s bond limit.

Sen. Scott Hammond, R-Las Vegas, sponsored the bill in 2013 and appeared before the Board of Finance today to back the bond authorization.

Bruce Breslow, director of the Department of Business and Industry, said the bonds will have a BB rating, unlike some other school bonds he described as having a junk rating.

The interest rate should be about 5 percent.

The state now gives the school about $6,500 per student, the same as the public schools. Somerset has 4,500 students and a waiting list of 5,700, school officials said.

Breslow said no other charter schools have applied to go through the state to issue bonds. “They are waiting to see what we do today,” he said.

State Controller Ron Knecht, a member of the finance board, said the state is not be liable if the school defaults on its bond payments. “The taxpayers are not on the hook,” he said.

Gov. Brian Sandoval said Somerset is a “good quality school,” and it’s good to see a bill passed by the Legislature come to fruition.

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