CHANNAHON – Financial guru Dave Ramsey would be proud.

Channahon School District 17 is now officially debt-free.

After a final $1,459,500 check was signed Dec. 1 by Chief School Business Official Michael Schroeder and sent on its way to make the district’s last bond payment, the district has zero debt.

“It’s exciting,” Schroeder said. “It’s pretty great.”

The district’s bond series of $19.5 million was taken out in 2001 to pay for the construction of Channahon Junior High School. It was approved by a voter referendum for a 20-year term, which would have taken it out to 2020, but Schroeder said a state capital development bond grant of $4.1 million took five years off the back end.

Klein Hall CPA partner Scott Duenser, the independent auditor for the school district, said it is unusual to see an area district become debt-free.

“In my 20-year career,” he said, “I don’t think I’ve seen it once. ... It’s very unusual to see a district that has paid off all its bonds and debts.”

Duenser said schools take on debt for three main reasons: To finance construction of a new building, for building maintenance and to issue working cash bonds. It’s not always a bad thing, he added. Districts don’t have the cash on hand to finance building a new school, for instance.

But the sooner a district can release that debt, the better off it – and its taxpayers – are.

Superintendent Nick Henkle just signed on with the district last spring and said he’s proud of what has been achieved.

“Instead of focusing on, ‘How are we going to fund education?’” Henkle said, “we get to focus on what we’re doing for kids, and I think that’s a real benefit. ... It was accomplished by a pattern of good decision-making by the board, the previous superintendent, Dr. Karin Evans, and our business manager, Mike Schroeder.”

Henkle said that at the same time the district was managing its fiscal responsibilities, students were scoring among the highest in the area, garnering the district the Bright Star Award several years in a row. The award recognizes school districts that rank in the top third academically and the bottom quarter for spending.

“It’s been a decision by the board to spend a certain amount on education and still have a quality product,” he said.

A nice industrial tax base led by ExxonMobil helped the district become debt-free, administrators agreed.

In addition, Schroeder said that in 2005, the board accelerated the district’s debt service payments, saving more than $8.4 million over the life of the bond issue. A combination of re-funding and abatements took millions more off the original bond payment schedule.

“The board reviewed abatement and callable bond options,” Schroeder said, “determining how to make the biggest impact on the debt structure by returning dollars to the taxpayers effectively over the 20-year life of the bond debt.”

Having zero debt will save local taxpayers money. Schroeder estimates homeowners with houses valued at $250,000 will spend $220 a year less on the district’s portion of their property tax bills in 2016 to 2020 compared to what they would have paid if the debt was still in place.

“I think it’s fantastic,” board President Joe Pope said. “I’m really proud as a board president, as well as a community member. Being a fairly new board member, a lot of this goes on the backs of previous board members that have served through the years and really put in the work to get us where we are right now.”