The Panther Valley School Board recently took advantage of low interest rates to reduce the district's debt obligations by more than half a million dollars.

The school board approved a deal to refinance about $6.39 million in debt at a lower interest rate. The resulting savings will net the district $676,000 over the life of the bond, which is approximately 16 years."Bonds are a loan, usually taken out for a construction project. Every so often when the timing is right, you can lower your overall payments and your overall debt, because of lower interest rates," district business manager Ken Marx said.The refinanced debt is the largest of seven bonds that the district is currently repaying.Over the past five years, the district has refinanced on multiple occasions to take advantage of federal interest rates which have been in a consistent decline.The refinancing will save the district $133,000 in 2016-17 alone - money that was not included in the budget passed in June. That budget included a tax increase for residents.Marx said that even though the refinancing was in the works at that time, it wasn't included in the budget because of the potential for interest rates to change."You usually don't budget for a refinancing because you don't know where rates will be at that point," Marx said.