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District Postpones Bond Sale Source: Albuquerque Journal Publication date: 2000-06-13

Shortfall Helps Sway School Board Decision

Falling property values and a possible Sandoval County computer glitch have postponed a $12 million bond sale for Rio Rancho Public Schools.

Rio Rancho had been scheduled to sell the bonds Monday night, but financial consultant Charles Casey recommended postponing the sale because the district is short $400,000 toward a $4.87 million payment due in August for prior bond sales.

"It just got to be too little, and it made me nervous," Casey told the Rio Rancho school board during its regular meeting Monday night.

The district has to show it has enough money in its accounts to pay for its existing debts, he said, or else it would not be eligible to get the full $12 million it is seeking for school construction projects.

"Rather than take a chance of not being able to deliver the bonds, we decided to postpone the bond sale," Casey said.

Casey said the County Treasurer's Office is having trouble processing payments, which are electronically transferred from banks and mortgage companies to the county. While the money is already deposited with the county, employees are having to manually record the information because of the computer problems.

Additionally, Rio Rancho's assessed valuation has dropped from $730 million to $705 million this year, meaning that less money is also being collected from property owners, he said.

"We're going to be all right," Casey said. "We're not all right right now."

Casey said the district should have its money available in the next month in time to make the August payment. A new bond sale is now scheduled for July 24.

School board members seemed assured that the problem was taken care of.

"We're grateful you've scheduled the bond payment to reflect the county's computational problems," board president Carl Harper told Casey.

Sandoval County spokesman Gayland Bryant on Monday evening said he was not aware of the problems with the school bonds and referred the comment to County Treasurer Josephine Montoya and her deputy, Dale Prairie. Neither has listed home telephone numbers and could not be reached for comment late Monday.

Rio Rancho facilities director Richard Herrera said the postponement would not delay any of the planned construction projects, including stadium lights at Rio Rancho High School scheduled for completion by Sept. 1.

Construction on an eighth- and ninth-grade school and an elementary in Enchanted Hills are not scheduled to begin until early next year, and to be ready to open in the fall of 2002.

Casey said the problems are potentially affecting the Jemez Valley and Bernalillo school districts, though he did not know to what extent.

http://realcities.yellowbrix.com/pages/realcities/Story.nsp?story_id=11257896&site=charlotte&ID=realcities&scategory=Computers%3AY2K

-- (Dee360Degree@aol.com), June 14, 2000