Standard&Poor's Ratings Services assigned its 'A-' rating to Palo Verde Community College District, Calif.'s $31.5 million 2008 certificates of participation (COPs), secured by the district's covenant to budget and appropriate lease payments and representing a reoffering of the district's 2007 COPs, restructuring the debt into a fixed-rate mode. The district covenants to make lease payments annually for use of the district's main campus in Blythe, consisting primarily of administration, educational, and technology buildings, as well as a new Fine and Performing Arts Complex to be constructed on the district's 200-acre main campus in Blythe. The district plans to fund the majority of the construction with state grants, supplemented by COP proceeds. Lease payments are subject to abatement in
