Pension and Other Postretirement Benefits

6 Months Ended

Jan. 31, 2013

Pension and Other Postretirement Benefit Expense [Abstract]

Pension and Other Postretirement Benefits Disclosure

PENSION AND OTHER POSTRETIREMENT BENEFITS

The components of net periodic pension and postretirement health benefit costs were as follows:

	PENSION PLAN (in thousands)
	For the Three Months Ended January 31,						For the Six Months Ended January 31,
	2013			2012			2013			2012
Service cost	$	417		$	303		$	876		$	662
Interest cost	384			405			772			808
Expected return on plan assets	(373		)	(369		)	(755		)	(740		)
Amortization of:
Prior service costs	4			4			7			7
Other actuarial loss	220			82			442			159
Net periodic benefit cost	$	652		$	425		$	1,342		$	896
	POSTRETIREMENT HEALTH PLAN               (in thousands)
	For the Three Months Ended January 31,						For the Six Months Ended January 31,
	2013			2012			2013			2012
Service cost	$	34		$	26		$	68		$	52
Interest cost	24			26			48			52
Amortization of:
Net transition obligation	4			4			8			8
Other actuarial loss	13			7			26			15
Net periodic benefit cost	$	75		$	63		$	150		$	127

Our plan covering postretirement health benefits is an unfunded plan. We have funded the pension plan based upon actuarially determined contributions that take into account the normal cost and the minimum and maximum contribution requirements of various regulations.We contributed $427,000 to our pension plan during the second quarter ended January 31, 2013. We intend to make contributions to the pension plan during the current fiscal year approximately equal to the annual actuarial determined cost.We currently estimate this amount to be approximately $780,000 for the remainder of fiscal 2013. See Item 3. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk for a discussion of the potential impact of financial market fluctuations on pension plan assets and future funding contributions.

Assumptions used in the previous calculations were as follows:

	PENSION PLAN				POSTRETIREMENT HEALTH BENEFITS
	For the Three and Six Months Ended January 31,
	2013		2012		2013		2012
Discount rate for net periodic benefit cost	3.75	%	5.25	%	3.75	%	5.25	%
Rate of increase in compensation levels	3.50	%	4.00	%	—		—
Long-term expected rate of return on assets	7.50	%	7.50	%	—		—

The medical cost trend assumption for postretirement health benefits was 8.0%. The graded trend rate is expected to decrease to an ultimate rate of 5.0% in fiscal 2019.