Conroe ISD gets ready to build after voters pass $653M bond
Six months after Conroe ISD voters rejected a massive bond package, voters this week approved a scaled-down $653 million version that includes money for campus renovations and additions, support services, security upgrades and new properties.
The measure passed Tuesday with 56 percent of the vote. A separate $23 million measure to put artificial turf at a handful of schools failed.
“Conroe ISD is looking forward to continuing to serve the educational needs of our students and families while also being good stewards of taxpayers’ dollars,” the district said in a statement.
This was the district’s second attempt to persuade voters to approve a bond package this year. In May, voters rejected a $807 million bond proposal, so the district went back to the drawing board and scaled back the package. Voter turnout for this bond vote was significantly higher than in May.
“I was very proud to see more people in the community get engaged in the process and go out and vote,” Superintendent Curtis Null said.
The November bond package didn’t include one of the most divisive components of the first bond package: $23 million for artificial turf at five high schools — Caney Creek, The Woodlands College Park, Conroe, The Woodlands and Oak Ridge — and for McCullough Junior High School. That proposal was put before voters as a separate ballot measure.
Null said he couldn’t say if artificial turf might be included in a future bond but that it remains an option. Right now the district is focused on the bond it just passed.
The other $653 million covers five main areas: new campuses and additions ($315 million), campus renovations ($239 million), safety and security ($44 million), district support services ($25 million) and land/contingency ($29 million).
The first of four new elementary schools to be funded by bond proceeds will be a new elementary school in the Caney Creek feeder, slated to open in 2021. According to a bond breakdown on the CISD website, the new school is expected to cost $35.1 million. The design phase for the new junior high school in the Caney Creek feeder will begin soon; it is expected to open in 2023 and cost $80.6 million.
Internally, the district will begin interviewing potential contractors and start the bid process for the projects. Selling the bonds will start within the next few weeks.
“We may think that, ‘Hey it passed, we’re going to build everything tomorrow,’ ” Null said of the long process of selling bonds. “That’s just not the way it works. It takes time and we want to make sure that we a) plan appropriately, and b) go out and get the absolute best value in everything that we’re going to do. We want to get the best prices, and then go through the proper process and build a facility that’s going to last.”
The bond drew support from the Conroe/Lake Conroe Chamber of Commerce and The Woodlands Chamber of Commerce.
Brian Bondy, president of the Conroe/Lake Conroe Chamber, said the bond wasn’t just about the school district, it was also about the local economy.
“Business leaders in the Conroe Independent School District area know that good schools attract not only companies looking to relocate but also their employees who send their children to these schools,” Bondy said in a written statement. “Passing the bonds happened because voters heard the positive messages about the real needs of a fast-growing school district.”
Groups that came out against the bond include the Texas Patriot’s PAC, the Montgomery County Tea Party, and The Children’s Hope PAC, a local group that strongly opposed the May bond package as well, for similar reasons.
“The passing of the Prop A CISD bond was a big disappointment for MCTP PAC and all of those who feel ‘Taxed Enough Already!’ ” said Pat Tibbs, president of the Montgomery County Tea Party PAC.