The Atlantic School Board Tuesday, adopted a resolution directing the sale of 7.66-million dollars in school infrastructure, sales, services and use tax bonds, series 2012.

Hutchinson-Shockey-Erley & Company of Chicago, IL, was the winning bidder for the marketing of the bonds.

HSE had the lowest interest rate of 3.74%, which was about one-half percent lower than what was expected when the district began to look at financing earlier this Spring. Piper Jaffrey’s Travis Squires said that will save the district about $500,000 in interest. The bonds will be used to finance construction and renovation at the Atlantic Middle School.

Squires said there were four bidders for the bonds. In addition to the Illinois firm, the other three were located in Minnesota, Wisconsin and New York. All of the bids were received electronically, through a parity on-line bidding system, which is common practice these days.

Squires had some good news for the board Tuesday night. He said during past month, the company finalized the rating cull for the Standard and Poor’s rating agency. He says the Atlantic Community School District received an “A-plus” bond rating, which, he says, is “very good.”

He says that’s based essentially on the fact the district’s enrollment is fairly stable, and because it has sufficient bond coverage on the existing debt. Squires says the district has almost double the amount of revenues needed to make the bond payments.