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Katy Citizen Watchdog$ |
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We’re Taxpayers. It’s Our Money. |
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Picture Of The KISD Bond Process - Part I |
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Back To Watchdog Archives (“Commentary”)
Reviewing the KISD bond process over the eleven years of the Merrell Administration clarifies the intent, purposes, and practices that position Katy ISD as Texas’ highest taxed school district.
Groundwork for reaching such a limit was set long before Dr. Merrell arrived on the scene, but Leonard Merrell and others in the state saw the potential for plucking this juicy plum called KATY ISD, and Dr. Merrell‘s candidacy for superintendent was the first step. Katy ISD was set up to be a beta site for all sorts of projects, not the least of which was building facilities which enhanced the curriculum. The educational change agents viewed KISD as a moderately wealthy school district where parents were prone to want things that “looked” good and where parents trusted the schools to do right by their children.
As a member of the Katy ISD School Board in 1995, I rejected Dr. Merrell’s candidacy for superintendent and was the lone nay vote against his hiring. Public notice of my objection was negligible if it existed at all. Dr. Merrell swept into Katy and made it his own within months. I watched as long as I could stand it and then resigned my position a year before my term ended. My disappointment was mostly with the majority of the Board who danced like puppets to the superintendent’s tunes.
My instincts told me that Dr. Merrell was a man who had great ambition and who saw Katy ISD as a place where he could try out the School to Work agenda that was sweeping America. Many outsiders helped him to secure the position. My fellow board members were completely snowed by his charm and fell in line like water headed for a low spot.
The school district in 1994 found itself in an awkward position. The superintendent at the time was responsible for allowing the printing of some untoward comments in the Discipline Management Plan which were offensive to all of us. That superintendent was soon on his way out, and the district named an interim superintendent and began to search for a replacement.
Even though Dr. Merrell had lackluster credentials, the Board members took a shine to his affable nature, and all those red flags for me were ignored by the others.
In 1982, the Katy School Board passed a $75 million bond issue, and it lasted twelve years. Growth of the student population was steady, and new schools were built AFTER the students arrived. Those of us who moved here early on knew that our children would be bused around until our subdivisions were built out. We did not expect a new school the minute we moved here. We often complained when our children were bused right by one or two closer schools, but the Board did what was economically best for the community, and no one could argue with that. Construction utilized reasonably priced contractors and architects. By 1993 the tax rate in KISD was $1.63. The bonded indebtedness was $116,299,953 as of August 31, 1993 (Source KISD Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, for fiscal year ending August 31, 1993).
In April of 1994, the Board and the voters had approved a $90 Million bond issue which was touted to the public as being enough to last through 1999, and by the time Leonard Merrell arrived in June of 1995, about $15 Million had been spent. Within a year and two months after he arrived, in the summer of 1996 apparently the rest of the money ($75 Million) was nearly gone, and the superintendent and his compliant Board, three years ahead of schedule, were already out asking for another bond initiative--this time for $130 Million.
What is remarkable about the quickness with which the money was spent is that three of the four elementary schools that were supposed to be built (which everyone can agree are major items of a bond), were not. (The 1994 Bond Initiative called for four elementary schools, McRoberts, Hayes, Williams and Alexander, to be built. Between 1993 and 1997, only one elementary school opened and that was Hayes in 1995. If “fast growth” is the reason for the District’s large bonds, it is reasonable to assume that schools should be the first necessary project. No one mentioned the missing schools, and by 1996 the media seemed to have forgotten what had been promised. The public did not realize at the time that this was the first indication that the Board had no problem spending bond money in ways not indicated to the public when the bond initiative was proposed. Of course the District is now very clear that bond approval legally means a “blank check,” but it is optional with the Board of Trustees if that is the course it takes. The Watchdog$ believe the District should tell the public up front how it intends to use the bond money. Over the time of the bond coverage, if the announced items are not needed, then the bonds should not be sold.
School buildings, we can all agree, are the hook which triggers a “yes” vote on a bond, regardless of what else is listed, but if one cannot trust the School District to build them when it says it will, how does one keep voting “yes”?
See also “The Bond Initiative 1982” in Mary’s Corner. Click here to see the details of this initiative.
See also “The Bond Initiative 1994” in Mary’s Corner. Click here to see the details of this initiative.
© 2006 by Mary McGarr. All rights reserved.
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Mary McGarr, Katy Citizen Watchdog$ |
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Date: 10/10/2006 |
