Four school districts sending students to Carbon Career and Technical Institute will have extra cash in their bankroll thanks to a recent bond refinancing.

CCTI business administrator Jeffrey Deutsch said Jim Thorpe, Lehighton, Palmerton and Panther Valley school districts will save $2.294 million over the remaining 22-year life of construction bonds taken out in 2008 for an expansion and renovation at the school.Weatherly Area School District also sends students to CCTI, but chose to finance its portion of the project on its own."The savings were a result of reduced interest rates," Deutsch said Wednesday morning."When we did the original borrowing of $19.06 million in 2008, we got an interest rate of 5 percent. The refinancing rate we were able to get is 3.25 percent."Savings over the next 22 years, which are based on the real estate market value of each participating district, are as follows:Jim Thorpe: $952,239Lehighton: $613,186Palmerton: $471,188Panther Valley: $257,387"It equates to an average of about $100,000 per year in savings for the schools," Deutsch said.The project that necessitated the bonds included a 33,000-square-foot expansion and renovations to the rest of the building.The kitchen, cafeteria, cosmetology spa, carpentry lab, media center and academic classrooms were all included in the expansion."The original bond and expansion/renovation project enables Carbon County to have state-of-the art career and technical education facilities, equipment and programs," said David Reinbold, CCTI administrative director. "The project finished on time and under budget and by refinancing now we continue to find ways to make the project affordable and fiscally sound."When Deutsch began discussing the refinancing with CCTI's joint operating committee and authority, which along with sending school districts have already approved it, he predicted a savings of only $1 million and $1.5 million.While he admitted that was a conservative estimate, the end result was "great news" for everyone involved.Public Financial Management and Janney Montgomery Scott acted as financial advisers to CCTI.Rhoades and Sinon were bound counsel.The refinancing settlement date is April 20.Districts are billed twice per year and will begin seeing the reduced payments in September.