HISD leaders pitch $1.7B bond vote
Recent tumult may challenge voter support
Administrators on Thursday recommended Houston ISD seek voter approval for a $1.7 billion capital projects bond in May 2019, charging forward with long-term spending plans even as the district faces uncertainty about its leadership and ability to maintain local control over decisionmaking.
District leaders said the $1.7 billion bond would finance much-needed rebuilding of 18 existing elementary and middle schools, construction of three new campuses, security upgrades at all 280plus schools and the purchase of new buses, among other costs. HISD administrators said it was unclear whether the proposed bond package would result in a tax in-
crease, saying they will have a better idea when the Harris County Appraisal District finalizes property values in August.
HISD trustees would have to approve a measure to send the bond referendum to voters, with board members likely making a decision in late 2018 or early 2019. If approved, the bond would be HISD’s first since 2012, when 67 percent of voters backed a $1.89 billion package.
The 2019 proposal, however, could meet more resistance than usual amid ongoing upheaval in the district.
In the past four months, HISD has lost its superintendent, announced a $100 million-plus budget deficit and increased its odds of losing local control over its school board by choosing not to surrender control over 10 chronically under-performing campuses. The district’s image also took a hit last month when police arrested two women and the audience temporarily was ousted from the central administration building during a heated school board meeting. The women were released from jail the next day and no charges were filed.
HISD also has been criticized for adding $212 million to the $1.89 billion bond approved in 2012. Various stakeholders have debated whether the district needed the additional money to cover rising construction prices or mismanagement of the initial bond.
HISD Chief Operating Officer Brian Busby said Thursday the district will begin polling to determine whether there is public support for a bond referendum. He said he is “confident” residents ultimately will back the proposal.
“The average taxpayer or public person would probably say, ‘Why would you be doing this now?’” Busby said. “I think by this time in November or December, the public will begin to see what we’re doing and what we’ll look like moving forward.”
Traditional support
Houston ISD voters have approved four capital projects bonds since 1998, totaling $4.2 billion. In recent years, residents of school districts throughout the five-county Greater Houston area also have overwhelmingly supported large school bonds, passing 30 out of 31 packages that totaled at least $100 million.
Few districts, however, have sought bonds amid such turbulence.
“Comparing ourselves to surrounding districts, they’re not making national news for negative reasons right now, so we need to remember what the public opinion is of our district overall,” HISD Trustee Sue Deigaard said, referring to media coverage of last month’s board meeting.
University of Houston political science Professor Richard Murray said the district’s more affluent voters, who turn out in higher numbers during off-year May elections, likely will be key to the referendum. Those voters traditionally have supported school bonds, but they also have seen their local tax bills dramatically rise in recent years as property values have gone up.
The district’s upheaval, Murray said, also makes it more challenging to win support for a bond.
“It’s obviously a loss to have this vacuum of a visible superintendent in place that could be the public face of the effort,” Murray said. “You’ve also got a board that’s made some headlines that are not particularly attractive. It’s not going to be an easy thing.”
HISD’s recommendation Thursday represented a shift from its first presentation about a bond in January, before all the tumult. At that time, HISD leaders discussed the possibility of a $500 million bond issue that would result in no tax increase, or a $1.2 billion bond that would come with an increase of 3 cents to 7 cents per $100 in taxable value.
Busby said the proposed bond amount has changed as district leaders further assessed campus and maintenance needs.
HISD Chief Financial Officer Rene Barajas said projections for post-Harvey property values have changed, as well, causing the shift in its tax outlook. District leaders in January predicted a 3 percent decline in values this year, but Appraisal District officials since have provided a preliminary estimate of a 2 percent increase in values, Barajas said.
“Getting further and further way from Harvey, we may be talking to the appraisal district and they may be saying, ‘You’re probably looking at a 4 percent increase in property values next year,’” Barajas said. “That helps significantly to increase the size of a bond issue without having any negative impact on taxes.”
Vital upgrades
Barajas added that HISD leaders could lower the recommended bond total to avoid any property tax increases. HISD has the lowest school property tax rate — $1.2067 per $100 in taxable value — among medium and large school districts in the Greater Houston area, but it also boasts the largest property value base relative to its enrollment.
HISD administrators have not finalized a line-item proposal for a 2019 bond, but they presented a broad outline of major projects Thursday.
At the 18 schools scheduled for reconstruction, the district would build new facilities, rather than renovating. The 18 schools originally were built between 1914 and 1980, with an average age of 65 years.
The 18 campuses are Bonham, Brookline, Durkee, Elrod, Grissom, Kelso, Law, McNamara, Memorial and Scroggins elementary schools; Burbank, Deady, Henry, Key, Lanier and Revere middle schools; T.H. Rogers School; and the facility home to both Cage Elementary and Project Chrysalis Middle School.
Myra Bell, principal of Kelso Elementary School on the city’s southeast side, said the bond would provide vital facilities and security upgrades at her duallanguage campus, which originally was built in 1951.
During a tour of the campus Thursday, Bell noted several drawbacks of its current configuration: outdated air conditioning systems leave some classrooms hot and humid, all third and fourth graders are housed in temporary trailers, teachers use a tiny unisex bathroom with no ventilation and fences provide little distance between playgrounds and the public sidewalk.
“I feel like when my kids go off to other schools, they see the difference,” Bell said. “They’re at the age where this needs to be that type of environment that hooks the kids.”
Two of the three new campuses would be located on the city’s south and west sides to reduce overcrowding. The third campus, also scheduled for the city’s south side, would mimic HISD’s existing Barbara Jordan High School for Careers.