Picture Of The KISD Bond Process

Katy Citizen Watchdog$

We’re Taxpayers. It’s Our Money.

Picture Of The KISD Bond Process - Part II

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In the summer of 1996, a new bond proposal was put forth, this time for $130 Million. This amount was supposed to last through 2004. The proposal was Dr. Merrell’s first bond to initiate, and the first press release gave us our first taste of the tactics he has used time and again over the last ten years: “Present school district facilities operate at near-capacity with 120 classrooms housed in portable buildings. [That’s 60 actual portables with two classes per portable.] Without new bond money, the district would be hard-pressed to expand current facilities or build new schools without hitting the state-mandated tax rate cap.”

This is the old “if you don’t approve this bond, we’ll raise your taxes anyway and put your kid in a shack” ploy. One has to wonder how many times it can be used on the voters.

A press release in the Katy Times of a Q&A for the bond issue contained these items of interest with answers supplied by the school district:

16. How much land is needed for an elementary school, a junior high or high school? It takes 10-12 acres for an elementary school, 20-22 acres for a junior high and 50-60 acres for a high school.

20. How much does it cost to build an elementary school, a junior high, or a high school? Elementary XVI was bid in May 1996 for $5,929,218 or $59.29 per square foot, Beck Junior High was bid in January 1995 for $8,457,595 or $66.22 per square foot. The anticipated budget for High School IV (Cinco Ranch High School) is $77 per square foot. [Cinco Ranch High School was supposed to cost $37 Million, but up until now it has cost $74,423,228, and I don’t think they’re finished yet.]

23. What did the $90 million bond issue passed in 1994 pay for? Here’s how the $90 million from the last bond issue was and is being spent: New construction: Beck Junior High, Katy Junior High, Hayes Elementary; Elementary XVI (McRoberts), and Elementary XVII (Alexander). Major renovations and/or expansions Memorial Parkway Elementary, Katy Elementary, Mayde Creek Junior High, West Memorial Junior High, Taylor High School and Katy High School. Land acquisitions: Greentrails 10 acres (which the District now does not intend to use) Fry Road and Misty Cove-12 acres, Mayde Creek complex 13 acres, Grand Parkway and Cinco Ranch Blvd., 162 acres. [Note that in a previous question (#16) they said that they needed 50-60 acres for a high school and 22 acres for a junior high.

The District planned a Transportation Center at the Cinco Ranch site which was never built either. The District brought up the Transportation Center again in the spring of 2006 as a proposed item, but it was not approved by the bond committee. I suppose the Transportation Center was going to cover 80 acres. The District failed to mention that McRoberts and Alexander were not built yet. School District representatives had stopped mentioning Elementary XVIII (Williams) at all. After being an item in three bond initiatives, Williams was completed in 2000 after the 1999 bond issue was approved.]

Bond Committee Co-Chairman (and later School Board Trustee) Joe Kimmel claimed in the push to pass the 1994 Bond Issue that “the district’s tax rate would not increase by more than 8 cents.” The tax rate in 1993-1994 (*KISD brochure Building Our Future) was $1.63 per $100 assessed property value. However, by the beginning of the 1996-1997 school year, the tax rate had gone to $1.73.(KISD Comprehensive Financial Report Ending August 31, 1996.)

The question voters need to ask themselves is if the School Board is not straight with the voters about what it is going to do with the money, which bond issue is actually paying for what, and if the Bond Committee Chairman cannot accurately predict how much our taxes are really going to increase, how do we keep voting “yes” to their proposed bond initiatives?

See also “The Bond Initiative 1996” in Mary’s Corner. Click here to read the details of this initiative.

Mary McGarr, Katy Citizen Watchdog$

Date: 10/11/2006