DALLAS - Standard & Poor's put Texas City Independent School District's AA issuer credit rating on its watch list for a possible downgrade May 19 due to lack of information, the agency said.
"This CreditWatch action follows our repeated attempts to obtain timely information of satisfactory quality to maintain our rating on the securities in accordance with our applicable criteria and policies," said Standard & Poor's credit analyst Emmanuelle Lawrence.
"The district's failure to provide us with the requested information by June 5, 2014, will likely result in our suspending the affected rating, preceded, in accordance with our policies, by any change to the rating we consider appropriate given the available information," Lawrence added.
The district is not rated by Moody's Investors Service or Fitch Ratings.
Melissa Tortorici, director of communications for the district, said the S&P warning came as a surprise because the district had already scheduled a meeting with analysts for June 4.
"We have every intention of answering all of their questions," Tortorici said. "We are confused why this is coming out today when we have confirmed an interview with them."
Tortorici said that the person who usually responds to S&P requests for information is on leave.
"We did not know that we were in danger of being placed on watch for this," she said.
With 5,878 students, Texas City ISD has $114.6 million of outstanding debt or about $19,490 per student, according to the Texas Comptroller's Office. That is third-highest among 10 districts of similar size, according to the Comptroller's data.
The district, which serves the Texas City area on the Gulf Coast, is near completion of $122 million of projects approved by voters in 2007.
While the S&P action may affect the district's underlying ratings, the bonds will retain triple-A coverage from the Texas Permanent School Fund.
