Humble ISD presents School FIRST 'A' rating; bond sale nets debt‑service savings
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Summary
At a December board meeting, Humble ISD staff presented the 2025 School FIRST financial management report and reported a $227M bond issuance (including $150M new money) and refunding that yields about $5.5M in debt‑service savings and roughly $550,000 per year in lower payments.
Billy Beatty, Humble ISD’s financial presenter, told the board the district earned an A ("superior") on the Texas Education Agency’s School FIRST financial accountability report for the year ending June 30, 2024, and reviewed the metrics that produced that rating. Beatty said the district passed the TEA critical indicators, received an unmodified audit opinion, and continues to carry a strong fund balance.
Beatty summarized key measures: he said the district has more assets than liabilities ("we have a $153,000,000 more than our in assets and our liabilities"), a fund balance that equates to about 144 days of operating expenses—well above TEA’s 75‑day recommendation—and full points on several liquidity and activity indicators. He also described a deliberate cash‑management choice: the district elected not to hold the three months of cash to reach the full cash‑on‑hand points because doing so would have foregone roughly $1,000,000 in interest earnings while preserving sufficient operating liquidity.
Board members also heard that the district’s debt metrics reflect recent growth: the debt‑to‑property‑value ratio is slightly above the TEA’s full‑points threshold (Beatty described it as a bit over 5%), a result he attributed to borrowing for new buildings to serve enrollment growth.
Separately, Beatty reported on the district’s bond market activity: the board’s financing team issued a 2022 bond program series that included roughly $150,000,000 of new money and about $77,000,000 of refunding. Orders were about 2.6 times oversubscribed, he said, with institutional interest from firms such as UBS, BlackRock, Vanguard and Fidelity. The refunding portion produced about $5,500,000 in net present‑value savings, which Beatty said translates to roughly $550,000 per year in lower debt service for the next decade.
The public hearing on the School FIRST report was opened and, with no speakers, closed by the chair. No formal board action was required on the report itself; it was presented for information and included in the board packet.
Next steps: finance staff said the board will continue regular reporting and include the bond‑program budget items on future consent or action agendas as needed.