Not this year: HISD ‘way overdue’ for bond vote
Houston ISD appeared to be on track in mid-February to put a bond election on the ballot this November, taking a critical step toward asking voters for the first time since 2012 to let it borrow money to finance major facility upgrades in the district.
Two weeks later, federal agents raided the district’s headquarters. Three weeks after that, campuses closed due to COVID-19.
Once again, an HISD bond would have to wait.
As voters in Dallas, San Antonio and parts of Fort Bend County decide in the coming weeks whether to back billions of dollars in school improvements, residents of the state’s largest district will not see a bond request on the ballot for the eighth straight year, the longest absence among Texas’ major urban districts.
Despite promising signs earlier this year that HISD finally may have weathered a cascade of embarrassments, the district remains unable to garner support needed to provide students with much-wanted improvements. After approving a facilities assessment in February, a precursor to a bond vote, HISD administrators and trustees never publicly discussed seek-
ing an election following the raid and pandemic-induced shutdown.
In addition to grappling with the novel coronavirus pandemic, HISD continues to face fallout from the abrupt departure of former Superintendent Richard Carranza, self-admitted dysfunction on the school board in 2018 and 2019, the Texas Education Agency’s ongoing effort to replace trustees and the raid tied to former high-ranking administrator Brian Busby.
“As a layperson on the outside looking in, with everything that was going on in the district, I personally would have had some reluctance supporting one,” said HISD trusteeKathy Blueford-Daniels, one of four new members on the nine-person board this year. “We’re not entangled in all that controversy now, and so it’s imperative that we look at trying to do a bond every five years. We’re way overdue.”
HISD’s bond drought means a delay in campus construction and renovations, as well as the purchase of technology, buses and security upgrades. Districts across the state have invested heavily in those improvements over the past decade, while HISD has languished without voter support for a bond.
Since 2010, HISD has received approval for a lone one bond issue of $1.9 billion, equal to about $9,000 per student. By contrast, voters in the state’s nine nextlargest districts have backed bonds totaling roughly $11,000 to $25,000 per student during that
time.
Rice University political science professor Bob Stein, who has conducted dozens of school bond polls and led a survey on voter attitudes toward HISD last year, said he would be “shocked” if the district could earn the needed majority support for a package. If a bond vote fails, HISD must cover costs associated with administering the election.
“There’s just no confidence in the district, and I have no reason to think that confidence has increased with remote learning,” Stein said. “My guess is they’re not going to pass a bond anytime soon.”
HISD administrators declined an interview request and did not respond to written questions for this story.
While COVID-19 has complicated efforts to secure school bond votes in 2020, a few dozen Texas districts are charging forward with requests for some of the state’s largest packages to date.
Dallas ISD, the state’s secondlargest district, is asking voters to approve a $3.7 billion bond that would nearly double the record $1.9 billion passed by HISD residents in 2012.
To the west, San Antonio ISD voters will decidewhether to support $1.3 billion in borrowing,
more than its past three bonds combined.
Locally, fast-growing Lamar CISD hopes to get the green light on nearly $800 million in bonds, about half ofwhichwould pay for six new campuses. Early estimates show the bonds carrying a tax rate increase of 8 cents per $100 in taxable value, equal to about $200 per year for a homeowner with a district-average taxable value of $253,000.
Under a new state law, Lamar must ask voters to approve four separate bond propositions. One of those proposals would include about $83 million for a second football stadium, which would
rank among the most expensive in state history.
“To estimate the cost of a second stadium, Lamar CISD looked at comparable stadiums in the area such as Clear Creek ISD, Tomball ISD, and Alvin ISD, and added construction cost increases from when they were built,” district officials said in a statement. The three Houston-area districts spent or expect to spend roughly $40 million to $50 million on their stadiums.
While most districts kept a November bond election on the ballot, several opted to cancel or postpone. In the Houston area, fast-growing Sheldon ISD shelved its $439 million bond plan and Galveston put its $187 million package on hold.
“We thought about our stakeholders, since a lot of them may or may not be working at the moment,” said Sheldon ISD’s board president, Latricia Archie.
Rosalinda Escamilla, the mother of a seventh-grade daughter at HISD’s DeadyMiddle School, said she remains hopefulHouston voters will see a bond on the ballot in the next couple of years.
Escamilla wants to see Deady’s 91-year-old building knocked down and rebuilt into a cornerstone of the city’s east side. Deady’s enrollment has plummeted from about 1,200 to 675 during the past two decades, which Escamilla partially attributes to the outdated campus.
“Deady needs to be redone and born again so that people will have a different view of it,” Escamilla said. “They’ll say, ‘Hey, it’s beautiful. Let’s go in.’ ”