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Board hears sales tax, insurance, operations and OPEB trust updates

DeSoto Parish School Board · May 22, 2026
AI-Generated Content: All content on this page was generated by AI to highlight key points from the meeting. For complete details and context, we recommend watching the full video. so we can fix them.

Summary

At the meeting, staff reported higher year‑to‑date sales tax receipts, persistent self‑insured medical and dental deficits for April, maintenance and transportation work volumes, a batting‑cage procurement schedule, and a consultant briefing showing the OPEB trust about 72% funded (~$98M through March).

District finance staff reported robust sales tax collections for March (money collected in April), with sales tax receipts of $4,000,006.74 and year‑to‑date collections about 33% higher than the prior year.

Staff also detailed self‑insured plan results: the medical fund reported 1,111 participants in April, continuing a year‑to‑date deficit, and the dental fund had revenue of $75,050 against costs of $88,045 for an April deficit of $12,995 and a year‑to‑date loss of $48,153.

Operations staff described a busy end of year for maintenance and technology teams (e.g., maintenance completed 218 of 250 April requests) and said summer bus inspections and a new iPad‑enabled work‑order system will be rolled out. Food services averaged 4,730 meals per day in April, above the monthly average.

Clay Stafford of Reliant briefed the board on the district's OPEB trust (other post‑employment benefits), reporting about $98.36 million in the fund through March and noting April market gains pushed the balance above $100 million; he characterized the fund as roughly 72–75% funded and suggested a conservative guideline of up to a 2% annual withdrawal of earnings to help offset retiree premium costs without depleting principal.

Other brief items: staff said 10 contractors attended a mandatory pre‑bid meeting for the North Southern High batting cage (bid opening scheduled for May 28 at 2 p.m.), and one district property (the former media center) is listed for sale at $432,000. The board adjourned following a motion and voice vote.