By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

ALABASTER – The Alabaster City School System will save about $252,000 in interest payments over the next 17 years after the city’s Board of Education agreed to pay off $356,454 in debt it inherited from the Shelby County School System.

During an April 13 meeting, the School Board voted unanimously to pay off a 2008 bond issue it inherited when it broke away from the county school system in July 2013.

School Board President Adam Moseley said the 2008 bond was issued when the Shelby County School System refinanced a previous bond it issued to complete projects in Alabaster schools.

The 2008 bond issue was not scheduled to be paid off for another 17 years, Moseley said.

“Paying it all off now will save us a lot of money in interest,” Moseley said. “Rather than pay it over the next 17 years, we wanted to go ahead and pay all of it off.”

ACS paid off the $356,454 debt using a portion of a $120 million bond issue the Alabaster School Board issued in September 2014 to pay off outstanding debts, construct a new high school and make renovations to existing city school facilities.