Presented with 10 items that would be on a potential $427,155,000 bond issue, those attending a town hall meeting at Jordan Elementary School Thursday indicated they didn’t see anything that could be removed.
However, there was some disagreement about the debt service tax rate.
Another town hall was held at Travis Elementary Thursday night. Two more are planned for 6 p.m. Aug. 7 at West Elementary School, 2225 W. Sycamore Drive, and 6 p.m. Aug. 7 at Permian High School Library, 1800 E. 42nd St.
Trustees Steve Brown, Bob Thayer and Tammy Hawkins were on hand to answer questions and Chief Communications Officer Mike Adkins presented the bond items which include:
- A new career and technical center for $80 million. CTE would be used by ECISD students, but also adults for reskilling and upskilling. Part of it would be funded by the Permian Strategic Partnership.
- A new middle school for $120 million. There has been discussion of putting this in the western part of Ector County.
- Priority 1 items for $48.4 million (these are things that need to be taken care of right away).
- Priority 2 items for $72.7 million (these are things that can be done in three to five years at the most).
- Replacing the Transportation Department building and buying buses for $37.54 million.
- Technology Department needs, $23.5 million.
- Fine Arts Department needs, $18.5 million.
- Athletics Department needs, $11.1 million.
- Agricultural Farm, $7.5 million. This would replace all the original buildings that are out there.
- Replacing the Transition Learning Center for $8 million.
The bond committee had been working with a no tax increase threshold of $396 million, but Superintendent Scott Muri said he told them that number could be different once the legislature finished its work and the district has new information.
“We always told the committee that number could be different once the legislature finishes and once we have new information. … Now we have more information. That number is bigger. We’re still following what the committee said; no tax increase, but we have a higher number that we can use,” Muri said July 25.
How did they get the higher number?
“It’s a formula. Look at your M&O tax, your I&S tax, your property values and there’s tax compression. There’s a lot of different factors that go into this and so those factors that are in the formula have changed,” Muri said. “We told the committee the whole time, this probably won’t be the number. We think it’s going to be higher …”
M&O stands for maintenance and operations, which makes up the general fund and I&S stands for interest and sinking and goes to pay debt, like bonds.
The total tax rate for ECISD is currently $1.17 per $100 valuation.
Recognizing that there are other needs than what was listed, Jordan Principal Jim Iker said people need to hear that for the elementary campuses that are underused, there will be boundary changes.
Bond committee member Sarah Moore said not only does this bond need to pass, but the public needs to be made aware that other bonds are coming in three to five years at the most to take care of the district’s myriad other needs.
In future bonds, new elementary schools might be at the forefront and in another bond high schools.
Moore said a new career and technical center would relieve some of the high schools’ overcrowding, but not for long.
“We’ve got 4,000 students in buildings built for 2,500,” Moore said.
She said that if you add up all the district’s needs it’s over $1 billion.
Jeff Russell, who was on the bond committee, said the district has kept the same maintenance and operations and interest and sinking tax rate for many years. At the same time, the state legislature was trying to give local homeowners, in particular property owners, a tax break.
“As the state compressed those rates trying to give people a break ECISD was sliding that over to I&S and paying down debt,” Russell said.
He likes paying down debt, but at the same time, there is the narrative of no tax increase with this bond.
“The reality is that tax increase has already occurred because we didn’t get our tax cut that we would have normally gotten in the prior years if the I&S rate had been pegged just to pay our required debt,” Russell said.
If this was done, he said, local property owners would have seen a reduction in their school taxes for the last three or four years.
In a poll for the bond and tax ratification election, Russell said trust of the district was a top issue. People didn’t trust ECISD.
Russell said trust still seems to be a major issue.
“I haven’t really heard you guys address that,” he said.
Board member Steve Brown said when the tax ratification election passed, a committee was formed to ensure the money was used for what it was supposed to be used for.
The TRE was used for buses, safety enhancements and salary increases for employees.
He said the same would be done if this bond passes.
Chief Financial Officer Deborah Ottmers said ECISD has the opportunity to be good financial stewards, keep the tax rate the same and pay their debts, the same way you would do at home.
“That’s what we are doing,” Ottmers said.
Russell said they also had a chance to continue paying debt on the 30-year schedule and cut taxes.
Ottmers said the school district would be in worse shape than it is now in terms of structures if that was done.
She said this is the perfect opportunity for the state to fund more of our general fund, which the law says they’re supposed to do “and they have not been doing.”
“That has been passed on to the taxpayers to do,” Ottmers said.
Over the past three years, ECISD has saved $27 million in interest that they would have had to pay if they had stuck to the same schedule, she added.
When the previous bonds were funded, Russell said the voters agreed to pay it on a 30-year schedule and ECISD has compressed that.
“It has saved interest, I will grant you. But it has also taken more dollars out of the typical property owners’ pocket every month on I&S …,” Russell said.
Trustee Bob Thayer said the bond issue has to pass.
Ottmers said there is $107 million in principal from previous debt, so the new bonds would be structured into that.
She added that they are hoping the companies that got tax rebates through Chapter 313 agreement will build their businesses and add to the tax base.
Tommy Hawkins, a local builder, said he has been in every building in the district and some of them are “pathetic.”
“We can beat this negativity to death. They’ve already proven they’ve paid down debt …,” he said.
He added that property values have gone up, but that’s an appraisal district issue.
“Go down and gripe to the appraisal district. … The no trust, I don’t buy that for a second. We’re talking little tiny factions of people that won’t agree with anything. We need to move forward. We need to fix their facilities,” Hawkins said.
