HAYS COUNTY, Texas — Early voting started April 25 in Hays County and one big item on the ballot is a $115 million Hays CISD school bond. The district says this bond is needed as more families continue to move to Hays County, because schools are filling up with students.
Two elementary schools are set to hit capacity in the next year.
“Negley is going to be over capacity this year, even though we had the voters approve the expansion of it last year. We're going to need some relief from that school. And then a sister school is also projected to be over capacity, Blanco Vista Elementary,” said Eric Wright, the Hays CISD superintendent. “So, this relief school would allow us to resolve those areas so that we could get the capacity under the 900 mark, which is our new target.”
The capacity for all elementary schools in Hay CISD is just over 12,000 students. Right now, there are nearly 10,000 students. If no new schools are built, they will reach capacity by 2025.
That’s why Hays CISD has a $115 million bond on the ballot to build a 16th elementary school and design a 17th. Both schools would be modeled like Sunfield Elementary, which is under construction now.
“So we have the design phase built-in because we are growing so fast, it's equivalent to one elementary school per year or every other year. And by putting the design phase in, we can be shovel ready if the bond passes,” said Superintendent Wright.
The construction for the 16th elementary school would be about $48 million of the bond money, the design process for the 17 thwould be $3 million, purchasing 55 more buses will be near $7 million, and $57 million would go toward a new Academic Support Center, where all admin and support staff would be in one place. Right now, they work out of multiple locations and many are in old buildings or school buildings, which need more space for students.
“So, last May, the voters approved the expansion of the Live Oak Academy, and we've had a waiting list of over 150 kids each here for the last three years at that campus, and half of that building is currently occupied by our curriculum instruction staff,” explained Wright.
A bond for the Academic Support Center did not pass last year on its own, but now it is grouped into this year's bond. During the last election, the proposed center did not include room for special education staff, but this year it does. The decision to bundle the Academic Support Center with these other projects into one bond this year was up to the school board.
“Last time, the Facilities and Bond Oversight Committee wasn't 100% on the central office building. And so, the board thought, 'Well, since we don't have their endorsement, we'll just make it its own proposition,'” explained Wright. “This year, the Facilities and Bond Oversight Committee, which is made up of four appointees from each board member for a total of 28 members, they voted unanimously that this item should be included.”
This bond is not going to increase the tax rate. The tax rate has actually decreased by 18% over the past three years. But this is because property taxes are increasing in Hays County, as home values are going up.
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