PRESS RELEASE – COLORADO SPRINGS, CO, July 2021
New Summit Charter Academy announced, in partnership with RBC Capital Markets the investment bank serving as underwriter of the charter school’s bond issuance and Choice Advisors who helped advise the transaction, a refinancing of the school’s facility. The school sold a total of $23 million dollars in bonds, which will be used to refinance the previous 7.5% private bond loan to public bonds at 3.77%. The new term loan closed early on Thursday (July 8, 2021). The 40-year financing is non-rated and has a final maturity yield of 3.77%.
“We’re extremely pleased with the strong interest among investors resulting in favorable terms for this new credit agreement – a positive sign of the value our school brings to the community,” said Kim McClelland, Principal. “The facility supports our strong need for an on-site school gymnasium and dramatically lowers our interest rate. Importantly, the structure also provides additional flexibility and will allow NSCA to be well-positioned to resume executing our growth strategies as the economy recovers from the pandemic.”
New Summit Charter Academy announced with the bonds that were financed the school can finally begin the new construction of a two-story, high school-sized gymnasium. The new gym space will occupy +/-10,200 square feet, including bleachers, janitor, men and women’s restrooms, vestibules, electrical room, and storage.
Alongside Unified Building Group (the construction company that built the conversion of the main building, housing approximately 686 students in preschool through eighth grade) construction on the new gym will hopefully begin in March of 2022 and is expected to be completed by August 2022, pending permits. The proposed gym will occupy the northside parking lot of 7899 Lexington Drive, located where the NSCA Pre-K entrance currently resides (see pictures below).
This is a truly unique project where we are making creative use of these refinance monies by adding a gym and will use other capital investments to update our phase 1 side of the building with a new HVAC system and will include a full LED lighting replacement throughout. The new gym will provide the physical education space that students at NSCA have been lacking, as we were limited to renting out the external facilities. NSCA’s new gymnasium will ensure all students have access to indoor space for physical education as New Summit takes advantage of the current market to own the entirety of its facility needs. This opportunity for on-site sports programs will give our students many skills, such as teamwork and leadership, which will carry over to the classroom and beyond, creating a more positive school culture as a whole where students will continue to thrive at New Summit.


History
New Summit Charter Academy, is one of two charter schools within Academy District 20 in Colorado Springs, CO. New Summit Charter Academy was founded as a tuition-free, K-6 elementary school in 2018, added grade 7 in 2019, and then grade 8 and preschool in 2020, and hopes to open a high school in future years as our K-8 program continues to grow. New Summit believes in teaching children a love of learning and inspiring them to reach new summits.