The Cherry Hill Public School District announced today that it sold $300,000,000 in school bonds to J.P. Morgan Securities, LLC, an investment management company. According to a news release issued by Barbara Wilson, the district’s Public Information Officer, this marks the “first phase of the two-phase bonds sale” that the district is carrying out.

The passage of the bond referendum on October 6, 2022, prompted the district to sell school bonds by approving a “$363 million bond… to improve all of.. [the district’s] 19 school buildings.” The money from the bond will allow the district to work on addressing “multiple infrastructure, security and ADA issues” as well as to replace the HVAC systems in its buildings among other things, as per the news release.

The district looked into working with seven vendors before selecting Morgan Securities. While it’s unclear if Morgan Securities offered a clearly advantageous deal, the news release writes that the “interest rates of the seven bids [provided by each of the potential vendors] ranged from 3.721 percent to 4.325 percent.” Morgan Securities offered the lowest interest rate plan, at 3.721 percent, which offers an explanation for the District’s selection of Morgan Securities’ services.

In its second phase, the District will sell the remaining $63,911,000 to complete its sale of $363 million worth of bonds. However, this second phase is not expected to occur until 2024 or 2025.