001We're going to call to order the special called meeting of the board of trustees of the Venus Independent School District on August 4th, 2025 at 6:06 p.m. And we do have a quorum. If everyone would please stand for the imitation and pledge. Joe, gracious heavenly father, we come before you tonight, Lord, with thankful hearts, Lord, we give you thanks for all the blessings that you send our way each and every day, Lord. Lord, we pray for you to be with us tonight, Lord, as we uh we celebrate the sale of these bonds, Lord, that uh we can continue to improve the school district for the for the kids. and the parents. Lord, just uh give us wisdom in everything that we do. Lord, we ask for your blessings on this community, this these kids, these
002parents. Lord, forgive us when we fail you. In Christ's name we ask. Amen. >> Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> We'd like to welcome all of our guests here tonight. And anybody sign up? No. We'll go to item number five. Consider approval of an order authorizing the issuance, sale, and delivery of Venus Independent School District unlimited tax school building bonds series 2025 levying a continuing direct annual ad valerum tax for the payment of the bonds and approving other matters incident and related there too. Uh Mr. Aguilera Yes, sir. >> Well, good evening to the board. Eric Maha with Hilltop. Um tonight we have hot off the press uh
003results from this morning's bond pricing bond sale um here for board consideration this evening and I know this process was started some time ago and tonight's uh one one important step in the in the next phase and so uh we wanted to summarize the board on the results this morning um and keep in mind that the results from this morning have been drafted by the district's bond attorney Mr. Aguilera um into the bond order that's before the board this evening. So, we'll jump right in. I know I I will say that, you know, Mr. Gatewood, Miss Paige did an excellent job just throughout this process. Um there there are a lot of things that must be done, a lot of information that must be gathered, rating calls, calls with attorneys and things like that to
004get to this point. And then even observing the pricing this morning, I think um the underwriters knew that the district was watching and this was important to the district. And you all you'll we'll see that uh there were good good results this morning. So, Page two, just a snapshot of some of the um um players in the process. Um given the size of the transaction, it was suggested to implement three underwriting firms, three different firms to help sell the bonds this morning. Um UNMB Bank was the lead underwriter and then BK and Oppenheimer were your two co-managers. Uh so in total there are three underwriting firms that went out and started making calls to investors this morning trying to sell the bonds, taking orders to see if they could generate uh demand for bonds. The
005district was rating. We have a copy of the rating report in the very back of the presentation prior to the process. Um the district's bond rating was affirmed at a uh so there's no change to the district's bond rating, but we also have a AAA bond rating through the state of Texas permit school fund guarantee which is good. As an investor, we saw a lot of demand because of that AAA rating. Investors know, you know, if the school district were not to repay the bonds, the state has a backing on the bonds, which is good. Um, so that that was in place. So that's a AAA. Page three, some of the key figures related to the bond sale. The final principal amount or par amount that the district will repay the interest on came in
006at 75.975 million. And the way that works is the bonds sold at a premium. So some of the investors paid, you know, 101 cents on the dollar. We can take those premium dollars, pay all the financing costs, and at the end of the day, the really important number here on page three, uh the district will receive uh 76 million to the construction or project fund. And we have that scheduled to occur on August 26th that the funds would be delivered to the district. And you all are certainly able to earn interest on those funds uh up to certain amounts. So that's good, you know, given the current rate environment. A lot of districts now are able to earn quite a bit of interest on those project dollars as you spend them for construction. So that's
007scheduled to occur August 26. I know after tonight's board meeting, um, Alberto will be sending documents to the attorney general and he'll probably talk more a little bit about that process, but the funds will be delivered on that date. You'll notice also we have a first interest payment date of August 28th and the reason for that is that's somewhat unique. Um, Senate Bill 4 with the recent legislation down out of Austin, um, there's a hard deadline on 9125. Any bonds that are issued prior to 9125 are eligible for some state funding. And so, we wanted to make sure that we got in before that 911 date. Um, some say you must just close by 91, but we wanted to be ultra sure by having a payment by 91. That way, the state recognizes that a
008these bonds are outstanding and b we made a payment on the bond already. So that way it would set Venus up for for receiving that state funding starting next year. And that's new legislation. When the state increased the homestead exemption from 100,000 to 140,000, they're offering more hold harmless money to districts to make up that loss in revenue. And so this will help you all qualify for that. And and really another important point on the bonds page three, the the final effective rate came in at a 4.92%. And early on we're always estimating around 5%. So coming in under 5% is is good to see this morning. The next few pages just more um figures on the bonds. Uh page four gives a little more detail on the funds coming in. Um like I said,
009the district will receive 75.975 million plus 3.546 million in that premium dollars. And we use those dollars to to fund the project fund at 76 million. And we also have some capitalized interest. This is some money that will be available for the district to use in the next couple years to help make the interest payments um in the first few years. Okay. So, we have 2.8 million of that and then the financing cost, but all in 76 million to the project fund and that's in line with what the voters approved. Page five. This really is a lot of the nuts and bolts that the in each bond sells at a different interest rate and they're broken into 5,000 increments. And so, um, I think throughout the morning, we had Miss Page, I know, observing very
010closely, we had over 40 accounts, I believe. So, that's a lot of accounts. So, 40 different investors place orders for the bonds. Like I said, they're broken in those 5,000 increments. Some investors put orders for, you know, 20 million a large block size and just depending on how many those investors would like to buy. Uh the the yields range from 2.82% up to 4.88 and then once you boil it all together, we we come back to that 4.92%. That's really the key interest rate, the effective rate once all is said and done. The district would have the ability to refinance or to pay bonds early starting in 10 years. That's pretty common in our market. So in 2035, uh the district could refinance or refund those bonds for savings depending on interest rates at the
011time or pay them off with cash. It's very rare that you see bonds paid all the way to their 2055 maturity in this case. So page six, those are the these are the bond payments yeartoear. Um, you can see that capitalized interest in the first few years will be available to help offset some of those interest payments and then the principal starts paying in 2030. And this really is tailored around the district's existing bonds. We wanted to take make, you know, take in account the existing bond payments before the new bond payments were to start occurring. The next few pages just some information on interest rates in general. Um, page seven, MMD. That's one of the indices we follow in the municipal bond market. This goes back the last year and a half or so.
012And just you can see how rates have we've had a slow trend upward. We saw some disruption earlier this year with a lot of the trade discussions that impacted our markets. You can see the the jagged lines about April time frame and we've stabled off since then, but we've had a little dip even in the last couple weeks here, which was nice to have right before this bond sale. Page eight, just another sample. This we've tried to highlight some of the key events going back. This we started tracking this after, kind of know the 2020 COVID period. Just some of the events that impacted the market in terms of interest rates over time. We thought that was interesting to include. Page nine, another interest rate chart. This goes back 20 years just to see historically
013speaking where we're at in terms of interest rates in the municipal bond market. So about average in terms of the 20-year average going back to on page nine. And then page 10 is really one of the key slides we wanted to show this evening. This is taken directly from the pricing this morning. Um, we had the ability to watch as the investors placed orders to buy the bonds this morning. And page 10, it might be a little hard to read, but um, in each year where we had bonds available to purchase, you'll see a black line. And anytime the blue or the red is above the black line, that means we had more orders than bonds available, which is good. Um, because you always want to have more demand. Um, and that helps push the
014interest rate lower because we're able to, the underwriters were actually able to lower some of the rates this morning. um 0.03 to 006% based on this good order flow since there were so many orders. Uh some of the investors once the rates were lowered they decided well no that's too low for me which is good for the district. They decided not to purchase and but you always had some that stepped in and bought those bonds. So overall towards the middle middle there's four there were 461 million in orders for the 7576 million available. So a very good demand this morning. And then on the right we have a quick snapshot bottom right on some of the the accounts. For example, Old Archer Capital Management, not too familiar with them, but they put an order in
015for 47 million of the the bond. So very good order flow and it was a good day this morning. Page 11. Uh this goes back to some of the planning models we put together prior to the election. um even when we're planning and just we just wanted to confirm that based on the interest rates, the property values assumptions all in really the key is the far right column, column P, we want to maintain that 50 cent tax rate that was indicated to voters and so the next few years we have some some of that capitalized interest money um available depending on if values come in higher or lower than anticipated the district will have that capitalized interest money to help keep that tax rate at 50 cents or so. And then once some of the
016the existing bond payments start to drop in the future, then there is future capacity for the district at that time. And then finally, the the last few pages, we've included a copy of the the bond rating report from standard and pores. Um I won't go through that, but that's just there for your reading. That that's a third party independent uh credit evaluation of the district that we have there. So the investors had access to that report along with some of the other information this morning. So that's really the end of the packet we have prepared. If there's any questions on I know it's a lot of numbers, but um I said we have this closing scheduled in a couple weeks here and the funds will be delivered to the district on that date. Good evening
017board members. Superintendent Gatewood with Escobian Panic serving as the district's uh bond council. Uh before the board this evening is the order authorizing the issuance of the bonds and we've essentially incorporated the financial terms that Eric just presented to the board. Um, you know, if the board so chooses to move forward, it's appropriate to uh approve a a motion adopting the order. And then from there, we will take a transcript of documents that evidences the the sale and the authority of the district to issue the bonds to the attorney general's office. will get their uh their review, address any issues that they may have, and then again that closing date, August 26th, right, is uh when we anticipate the the actual funds into the uh the district's account. But uh wanted to address any questions
018the board may have regarding the the legal process or or the order that's before the board uh this evening. Do we have a motion? >> I'll make a motion. I move that the order authorizing the issuance of the Venus Independent School District bonds be approved as presented. >> A motion by Amber. Do we have a second? >> Second by Joe. All in favor? Motion carries. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Um, we are not going to go into executive session. So, we'll go to item number seven, reconvene. We don't need to do that either. Go to item eight. Consider approval of asthma 411 and district physician partner. >> Uh, yes ma'am. This is what a district nurse, nurse summers, presented uh last board meeting uh regarding the over-the-counter medication and also the asthma medication for
019emergency purposes delivered to students. She did brief it, but you do have to uh vote on it. Ma'am, >> did anybody have any questions on that? >> No. Do we have a motion? >> I'll make a motion to approve the asthma 411 indistrict physician partner. >> Motion by Amber. Do we have a second? Second by Donald. All in favor? Motion carries. Go to item number eight. Ajourn at 6:21 p.m. >> Yes. Yes. So, this is So we will adjourn at 6:23 p.m. Oh, because it has tape on it because y'all gave me the >> That's why nobody ever