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PRESS RELEASE

TISD Board of Trustess Approve Property Purchase, New Software for Child Nutrition and Authorize the Issuance and Refinancing of Bonds

Texarkana, TX – During the February 17, 2015 regular session of the Texarkana Independent School District Board of Trustees meeting, members approved the purchase of property next to Theron Jones Early Literacy Center, new software for Child Nutrition and an order authorizing the issuance of bonds.

With the approval of purchase, TISD will acquire property next to Theron Jones Early Literacy Center at 1503 Plum. The .16 acre lot (6,970 square feet) was on the delinquent tax list from 1999 – 2012 with the Bowie County Appraisal District. It was placed on the Trustee List in 2013 and became available for purchase from BCAD in December 2014. Cost of purchase is $10. TISD will be responsible for lot cleaning and removal/demolition of the burnt structure.

Additionally, Trustees approved the purchase of Heartland School Solutions software for the Child Nutrition department. The purchase includes software, hardware and training for “point of sale” and “back of house” operations.

“This program is very user friendly for our employees and will be implemented into all school districts TISD oversees which include Bloomburg ISD, DeKalb ISD, Linden-Kildare CISD, Malta ISD, New Boston ISD and Redwater ISD),” shared Beth Carson, Director of Child Nutrition.

Heartland School Solutions is the leading provider of innovative child nutrition management and secure online payment solutions to public and private schools in the United States, currently supporting more than 30,000 schools in all 50 states.

“This group has a wonderful track record and we feel that we can receive the customer service support needed for our districts,” continued Carson. “The software programs will allow us to do better nutritional analysis on recipes that will assist us with menu development and appropriate calculations of calories, grams of protein and carbohydrates and vitamin/mineral and sodium determinations. It will also provide to us a daily inventory of what products are in house, freezer/coolers and on the shelf which will lead us to more financial efficiency in product ordering.”

One of the last orders of business for the night was a report on the day’s sale of voter approved bonds and Series 2007 bond refinancing.

Robert White, Managing Director of SAMCO Capital Markets, Inc., detailed to Trustees that the $29.9 million in bonds which were approved by voters in November 2014 were issued at an average interest rate of 3.5%. The Series 2007 bonds refinanced at a rate of 2.71% from 5.12% giving TISD an interest cost savings of $3.46 million.

“It was a great day of selling for TISD,” shared Deidra Reeves, Chief Financial Officer. “The districts Aa3 rating with Moody’s Investors Service and the fact that it was a seller’s market led us to an outstanding amount of savings for our taxpayers.”

Following the presentation from SAMCO, Trustees approved the adoption of the order authorizing the issuance of unlimited tax school building and refunding bonds.

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