Dallas Independent School District Packet Summary — August 13, 2026
Key Item on the Agenda
Dallas Independent School District has called a Board of Trustees meeting for 3:45 p.m. on August 13 at the Turney W. Leonard Governance and Training Center. The agenda centers on one action item involving the acquisition and financing of a new administrative services facility, along with a public forum and a potential closed session.
The Board is scheduled to consider an order authorizing a series of real-estate, lease-purchase, and financing transactions involving the Dallas Independent School District Public Facility Corporation.
New Administrative Services Facility
The proposed transaction concerns property at 4235 Norwich Street in Dallas. Packet documents describe plans to acquire and improve the property for a new administrative services facility that would include centralized warehouse, storage, maintenance, and security functions.
The underlying real-property purchase and sale contract is dated April 17, 2026, and lists a $121 million purchase price. The packet states that the purchase contract was previously approved by the Board.
Under the order scheduled for consideration, the District would assign its interest in that purchase contract to the Dallas Independent School District Public Facility Corporation. The corporation would purchase the property, finance the project, and lease it to the District under a lease with an option to purchase.
Proposed Bond and Lease Financing
The financing structure calls for the Public Facility Corporation to issue two series of lease revenue bonds:
- Dallas Independent School District Public Facility Corporation Lease Revenue Bonds, Series 2026A
- Dallas Independent School District Public Facility Corporation Lease Revenue Bonds, Taxable Series 2026B
Under the proposed lease structure, the corporation would acquire, improve, construct, and equip the project and lease it to the District. The District's lease payments would be set at amounts sufficient to pay debt service on the bonds.
The proposed order would also authorize or consent to documents associated with the financing, including a Trust Agreement, Mortgage, Security Agreement, and Bond Purchase Agreement. The corporation would grant security interests associated with the project as part of the bond transaction.
The packet does not provide completed principal amounts for the two bond series in the relevant certificates, and the included initial lease-payment schedule does not contain completed payment amounts. Those figures therefore cannot be stated from the packet.
Financial Context
Supporting documents provide several figures describing the District's financial position in connection with the proposed lease financing.
For the 2025–2026 fiscal year, the packet lists:
- A debt service tax rate of $0.242035
- A maintenance tax rate of 0.751800
- Certified taxable property valuation of $198,514,827,514
- Projected Basic Allotment portion of Tier I state aid for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2027 of $0
The packet says permitted sources for lease payments may include Tier One state funds and unintended surplus maintenance-tax funds, including investment earnings on maintenance and operations funds and the District's undesignated or unassigned general fund balance.
For FY 2025, the supporting financial exhibit reports $51,556,353 in M&O investment earnings and a $635 million undesignated/unassigned general fund balance. The exhibit's financing tests are marked "PASS," although the maximum annual debt-service figure itself is blank in the extracted packet.
What the Proposed Order Would Authorize
If acted upon as presented, the order is structured to authorize several interconnected steps needed to complete the financing.
The Board is scheduled to consider:
- Approval of the lease with the Public Facility Corporation in substantially the form presented.
- Assignment of the District's interest in the $121 million real-property purchase contract to the corporation.
- The corporation's purchase of the building under that contract.
- Issuance of the Series 2026A and Taxable Series 2026B lease revenue bonds by the corporation.
- Execution of the Trust Agreement, Mortgage, Security Agreement, and Bond Purchase Agreement associated with the financing.
- Authority for designated District representatives to execute certificates and other documents needed to complete the financing.
- Authority for necessary administrative accounting entries, including budget transfers, associated with the transaction.
The proposed order also provides authority for designated representatives to approve the preliminary or final official statement associated with the bond offering and take other actions necessary to implement the financing.
Public Facility Corporation's Role
The packet says the District previously authorized creation of the Dallas Independent School District Public Facility Corporation under Chapter 303 of the Texas Local Government Code. Its articles of incorporation were filed with the Texas Secretary of State on March 9, 2026.
The corporation was formed to finance or provide for acquisition, construction, rehabilitation, renovation, repair, equipping, furnishing, and placement into service of District public facilities. For this project, it would serve as the entity acquiring and financing the Norwich Street property and leasing the resulting facility to the District.
The packet also states that the District published notice of its intent to enter into a lease-purchase arrangement for the project and that no qualifying petition for a referendum had been received as described in the financing documents.
Public Forum and Closed Session
The agenda includes a public forum before the closed-session and action portions of the meeting. People wishing to address the Board must register through the Office of Board Services by 5 p.m. on the day preceding the meeting. Individual presentations generally may not exceed three minutes, with additional time provided when a non-simultaneous translator is used.
The agenda also provides for a closed session under several sections of the Texas Government Code. Listed purposes include private consultation with attorneys, deliberations concerning real property, certain personnel matters, and consultation with attorneys through telephone, video, or Internet communications.
The packet does not state that the Board will necessarily use every listed closed-session provision or identify a specific closed-session decision.
What to Watch at the Meeting
The central question is whether the Board will authorize the proposed structure for acquiring and financing the $121 million Norwich Street property as a new administrative services facility.
The action item reaches beyond the property purchase itself. It would establish the lease-purchase arrangement with the Public Facility Corporation, support issuance of two series of lease revenue bonds, approve related financing and security documents, and give District representatives authority to carry out the transaction.
Because this is a pre-meeting packet, the included forms and proposed order should not be treated as evidence of what the Board ultimately does at the August 13 meeting.
