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Albert Lea school board members approved a resolution that awarded the sale of $1.01 million in general obligation school building bonds to Northland Securities in a special board meeting Monday night.

All proceeds from the sale of the bonds will go toward school safety measures.

“We’re really happy with the bids,” said Jeff Seeley, a senior municipal adviser of Ehlers Inc., a public finance advisement firm. “These smaller bonds, shorter term, we’ve been seeing, … most of them were seeing two bids, a couple we only received one bid. But we actually received three bids on yours.”

According to Seeley, a larger bond typically received seven or eight bids.

True interest cost is 3.7%, something he said was higher than predicted.

The district will have $987,989 towards the project and whatever else is earned in interest rates.

“When compared to last year, even with issuing these bonds, as we told you before, you are not going to see, people are not going to see a tax increase,” he said. “Of course, it’s going to be a little more, they’re going to pay a little more than if you wouldn’t have issued the bonds. But compared to the prior year, you’re still seeing a drop in the tax rate.”

Jennifer Walsh, executive director of finance and operations for the district, said despite the interest rate being slightly higher, the levy forecasted in September would not change.