News Story

Dallas Independent School District heads to the municipal market this week with its biggest-ever new money bond issue, while it considers asking voters for as much as $6.24 billion in future debt. Texas’ second-largest public school system will sell $760.37 million of unlimited tax school building bonds that, along with $330 million of variable-rate bonds scheduled to price Feb. 4, will tap remaining authorization from $3.47 billion of general obligation debt voters approved in 2020, according to Eduardo Ramos, the district’s chief financial officer.

The deal should be “very well received,” he said. “The Dallas ISD name is well-known. We have a strong credit rating. Our finances are very strong and healthy,” Ramos told The Bond Buyer.

The bonds, which are being sold with the Texas Permanent School Fund’s triple-A-rated guarantee, fetched underlying ratings of Aa1 from Moody’s Investors Service and AAA from KBRA with stable outlooks. Moody’s said its rating “incorporates a long history of conservative budgeting that has led to consistently strong financial performance with robust reserves of around 60% of revenue for the past several years, including audited fiscal 2025.”