New bond issue, re-zoning talks begin

The Ector County Independent School District Board of Trustees will meet in a work session at 6 p.m. today to discuss another bond and tax ratification election.

Rezoning of middle schools, kindergarten through second- and third- through fifth-grade schools, along with rezoning of middle and elementary schools will be discussed.

In November 2017, voters rejected a $291,172,291 bond and a tax ratification election.

On the bond issue, 61.81 percent of people voted against the bond and 38.19 percent voted for it, or 4,442 against and 2,744 in support.

On the tax ratification election, 60.04 percent, or 4,312 people voted against it, and 39.96 percent, or 2,870, were for it.

A discussion of the possibility of having a tax ratification election for either June or September is on the agenda. Other than teachers and bus drivers, no one has had a raise in two years, supplemental agenda material said. The roofs from the hail storms in both 2016 and 2017 leave the district $6.7 million short of meeting its deductible requirements and the insurance company is still assessing the damage, the material said.

There are only 11 schools that have controlled access entrances which were included in the failed 2017 bond election and the material said they all need to be addressed.

The TRE to be discussed would be for 8 cents per $100 valuation, which would generate approximately $11 million, the material said. The 8 cents would be added to the district’s $1.04 maintenance and operation rate. The total tax rate is currently $1.15 per $100 valuation, so this would make it $1.23 per $100 valuation.

Board members also will discuss the possibility of convening a bond committee made up of some of the same members from the 2017 group, but with more members to determine the direction the community wishes to move in. The people on the list still have to be contacted to see if they would be willing to serve.

The district has hired TranCend4, a company specializing in bond elections to help guide the community through the process, the supplemental material said. The cost is $26,000, plus expenses which include flights, car/Uber, hotel and meals.

The board also will discuss timeline requirements for meetings with improvement required elementary campuses and the feeder campuses into improvement required middle school campuses.

They will also discuss the timeline for the meetings with the IR middle school campuses.

ECISD has eight campuses on improvement required status under state accountability standards. Ector Middle School and Noel and Zavala elementary schools are in their fifth year of IR. If they do not come off the list, they will face closure or the Texas Education Commissioner will appoint a board of managers over the whole district.