Due to good timing and a favorable interest rate, the building bonds issued as part of the Mundelein High School Facilities Improvement referendum will save District 120 taxpayers more than $7 million over the life of the bond repayments.
The project was approved by taxpayers in a referendum in November 2024. The sale of bonds was approved by the District 120 School Board on Jan. 13, meaning taxpayers will notice the increase on their property tax bills starting in May.
While the estimated increase for the owner of a $300,000 home will be approximately $414 - the same amount District officials told voters to expect - the length of the tax increase will be reduced by three years. Instead of paying for the bonds over 20 years, taxpayers will now pay off the bonds in 17 years.
The District waited for the right time to secure the interest rate. In February, the District was able to secure an interest rate of 3.55 percent, lower than the 3.81 percent rate expected. Then it strategically structured the bonds to make the payments as efficiently as possible while keeping the original estimate of an average home’s tax impact at $414 annually.
“At the end of the day, it generated $7.4 million in savings for taxpayers,” said Cathy Johnson, Assistant Superintendent of Finance and Operations. “It’s great, great news for the taxpayer.”
School District 120 secured only half of the $149.5 million in bonds approved by taxpayers. But even when the second round of bonds is secured next year, the impact on taxpayers will not change, Johnson. She explained the process during a video podcast with Dr. Corey Tafoya, Superintendent of Districts 75 and 120. The podcast is available here on the District’s YouTube channel and linked on the school’s website, www.d120.org.
“The way that we’ve structured this, taxes are not going to go up more when we issue the next set of bonds,” Johnson said. “The payments are going to be effectively the same all the way through.”
The District was also able to save $186,875 on fees on the bond purchase by negotiating with the underwriter and reducing the rates.
“One of the great success stories recently was the issuing of these bonds,” Tafoya said. “We’re trying to do everything possible to minimize the impact on the taxpayer. We want our taxpayers to feel like this product - of which we’re going to be really proud of in the end - that it also was done as financially responsible as possible.”
The project remains on-time and under budget as the District prepares for the biggest phase of construction work to take place this summer. Work will begin on the new competition gymnasium, field house, student commons, food service kitchen and more in May.
The first phase of the project included the now-completed renovation of the new home for the District 120 Transition Center and the nearly-completed classroom wing addition on the west side of the high school.