On February 21, 2006, the Board authorized staff to work with the District's Financial Advisor and Bond Counsel to proceed with the refunding on portions of Certificates of Participation, Series 1998B and 2001B when market conditions would allow the District to achieve a minimum 3% savings.

Recently, favorable market conditions allowed the financing team, led by Citigroup, to proceed with the refunding. During the course of preparing the financing for sale, Moody's Investors Service upgraded its credit ratings on all the District's outstanding debt, and assigned the District an issuer credit rating of "Aa2". The Moody's action makes Hillsborough one of only two Florida school districts to achieve a "Aa2" rating, and the only district among the State's 10 largest at that level. Hillsborough is the only district in the State to have a "Aa2" Moody's rating and a "AA" Standard & Poor's rating. The ratings for the District's COPs are Aa3 Moody's, AA- Standard & Poor's and A+ Fitch.

On January 9th and 10th pricing on the bonds took place. Due to a concerted effort by the financing team combined with a ratings increase from Moody's Investors Service, a net present value savings of $2.66 million was achieved.