Finance update: Perryton ISD cautions on disbursement totals, notes bond interest and an arbitrage reserve

A district representative reviewed the district's financial pages, cautioning that large totals on the disbursement report (for example, entries showing roughly $8,000,000 and $7,000,000 on different pages) can be misleading: some funds are moved into certificates of deposit (CDs), which makes it appear as if the district is spending the money monthly when it is maintaining reserves.

"We're really not spending that much money every month. Some of it goes into CDs, and so it looks like we're spending the money, but it's—we're holding on to it," Speaker 2 said, urging the board to keep that in mind when reviewing reports.

Speaker 2 described bond-related interest tied to a recent sale of $15,000,000 and an earlier $24 million issuance, saying the total interest is "a little over $2,000,000." The speaker also reminded the board of an approximately $150,000 projected arbitrage liability—"kinda like the taxes on it"—that should be reserved and not spent elsewhere.

On operating functions, Speaker 2 flagged transportation and extracurricular percentages as relatively high (extracurricular at 38%), and noted maintenance appears elevated because it includes a large insurance payment; the speaker indicated a budget amendment later in the meeting may address some of these function-level trends.

The transcript does not record a formal motion or vote tied to these financial notes during the excerpt provided.

Next steps recorded in the meeting: Speaker 2 indicated a budget amendment may be proposed later in the meeting to address some cost trends; no vote outcome was recorded in the excerpt.