BOND INITIATIVE 1982

 In 1982, the Katy School Board passed a $75 million bond issue, and the money from  it lasted twelve years.  Growth of the student population was steady, and new schools were built AFTER the students arrived.  Those of us who moved here early on knew that our children would be bused around until our subdivisions were built out.  We were not so arrogant as to expect a new school the minute we moved here.  We often complained when our children were bused right by one or two closer schools, but the Board did what was economically best for the community, and no one could argue with that. Construction utilized reasonably priced contractors and architects.

In a Katy Times article, Kelly Schlesinger reported on the proposed bond issue. 

The article, written in the summer of 1982 enumerated all the bond projects:

"Katy Independent School District voters will be asked to approve $75 million in schoolhouse bonds September 25 to build six schools, buy land and expand and renovate other facilities.

"We know the need is great, is valid." Superintendent Gordon Brown told KISD trustees Monday.  "We know that anybody who looks at it with an open mind will come to the same conclusion."

The trustees voted unanimously to call the election.

Citing growth projections which will put the KISD student population at 21,000 by 1987, Brown said the facilities are necessary to provide the types of schools to which district patrons are accustomed.  KISD finished the 1981-82 school year with 12,000 students.

The bond package includes:

...a $22.3 million, 335,000 square foot, high school, the district's third, to be built south of Mayde Creek Junior High School on Barker-Cypress Road.  It will relieve Mayde Creek Junior High School and Taylor High School when it opens in 1984.

...two junior high schools, one of which will open in 1984, the other in 1985 or 1986.  The combined price tag is $17.6 million.  Junior high 5 will relieve Memorial Parkway and Mayde Creek junior high schools and the sixth will relieve Mayde Creek.  Both will be 138,000 square feet. [Actually built in 1991 and 1996]

...three 78,000 square foot elementary schools, costing $13.3 million and scheduled to open i 1984, 1985 and the third in either 1985 or 1986.  Elementary school number 13 will relieve Cimarron, the district's 14th primary school will relieve Hutsell and the 15th Williamsburg Settlement. [Elementary school 13 was built in 1989, 14 was built in 1993 and 15 was built in 1995.  None of them were placed where stated in the bond referendum]

...a $2.2 million central administration expansion to add 27,000 square feet of working space to the building.  The work should be completed in 1983.

...a $1.7 million expansion to the district warehouse, to be finished in 1984.  The print shop and audio visual repair shop will be  added to the facility.

...a $.2 million, vocational special education center renovation at Katy High School, scheduled for completion in 1984.  It will add 16,000 square feet to the center.

...a $1 million, 15,000 square foot addition to the central vocational facility, to be finished in 1984-85.

...$.1 million for Taylor High School parking.  The project is set for 1984.

...$.1 million for outdoor education, phase 2. (This was the Outdoor Learning Center.)

...$2.8 million for an east end transportation center on Barker-Cypress road and an expansion of the current one at Hutsell Elementary.  If the new one is built in 1984, the district can wait until 1986 to expand the current facility.

Brown said he thinks the facilities "will be necessary to maintain the type of programs this district has a history of having, and similar types of construction the district is accustomed to having."

Earl Walden, KISD assistant superintendent for business, said the district will sell the bonds in three issues.  They are not expected to affect the 1982-83 tax rate, he said.  How the bonds will affect the tax rate after that will depend on the carryover, assessed values and interest rates at which they are sold, he said.

"Overall, the more bonds you sell, the more money you need to pay them off," he said.

State law limits the tax rate to $2 total with a $1 limit for the interest and sinking fund.  KISD now has a tax rate of 85 cents with 24 cents of that going to the debt service.  Walden told trustees last week the district should raise the tax rate to 88 cents per $100 assessed value.

The superintendent said the projects in the issue are "the minimum" to house new students under existing conditions.  He said there is "a good possibility" the growth will exceed the projections.  The district bases its estimates on housing starts and sales and the average number of children from each home attending school in the various neighborhoods.

Student population projections for Williamsburg Settlement Elementary School were below actual figures this year, Brown said.  Administrators expected 630 students in the school this year but the figure reached 980 in May.  The number will drop to 600 this year as many of the students will transfer to the new Sundown Elementary School.

 We didn't know there would be that great an acceleration in the area," Brown said.  "If anybody thinks we're ahead of schedule, I'm scared to death that would repeat itself.  When you have growth of 2,000 per year, you'd better have a way of building facilities."

In an inset, outlined comment, headlined "SCHOOL OFFICIALS TO PUSH BOND VOTE"  were these comments:  Gordon Brown, superintendent of the Katy Independent School District, said administrators are willing to meet with patrons or groups before Sept. 25 to discuss the $75 million bond election.  Brown said administrators are committed to providing information  "to any group any time" until the election.

Trustees Monday called the election for bonds to build a new high school, two junior highs, three elementary schools, other renovations and additions, a new transportation facility and land.

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Attention needs to be called to several matters from this article.  First notice the game plan for "pushing" the bond referendum.  It's almost as though they have a "HOW TO PUSH THE BOND PLAYBOOK." 

First their "growth projects" which claimed the student population would be 21,000 in 1987 (even though there were only 12,000 students at the time, was far-fetched.  The student population didn't get to 21,000 until 1993 which was SIX YEARS after it was predicted. 

When the District went ahead and built Mayde Creek High school in 1984, based on their faulty predictions, it opened with the 8th grade from Mayde Creek Junior High needed to help fill it up.  It was nowhere near being full, and it pulled students from Taylor (everyone who lived in Fleetwood, Barker's Landing, Thornwood, and Memorial Thicket) from the 11th grade down leaving Taylor with about 1200 students that year.  The fiasco was a waste of tax dollars at both schools.  There are some that say the school was opened to draw off students so that Taylor couldn't compete with Katy High School in football.  I'm one of those who also believes that to be true.

The junior highs that they claimed they needed--one to open in 1984 and the other in 1985 or 1986 to relieve Memorial Parkway and Mayde Creek junior high schools and a sixth to relieve Mayde Creek turned out this way:  Junior high #5, McDonald Junior high wasn't completed until 1991 (seven years past the announced time) and Junior High #6, Beck Junior High didn't open until 1996 (11 years past the announced time.) 

The three elementary schools that were announced were to be opened in 1984, 1985 and either 1985 or 1986.  Elementary #13 to relieve Cimarron Elementary was actually Golbow which opened in 1989 (5 years later than announced and on the north side of the freeway, not on the south side so Cimarron either didn't need any "relief" or it didn't get any.)  Elementary #14 announced to relieve Hutsell, was actually Fielder Elementary in the Cinco Ranch which opened in 1993, 8 years after it was announced in the 1982 bond call.  Elementary #15 announced to open in 1986 to relieve Williamsburg Settlement was actually Hayes Elementary built in 1995. 

Only two of the six schools were built as they were suggested in the bond call.  Only one school, Mayde Creek High School, was opened as predicted and they had to drag kids from all over the place to make it look viable.

One also has to notice the many statements about "providing the types of schools to which district patrons are accustomed."  So let's look at what was customary.  Katy folks were used to Katy High School, Katy Junior High, Bear Creek Elementary and Memorial Parkway Junior High, among other schools. They are all nice schools, but the intentional push for more grandeur started a long time ago.  It was purposeful, contrived and in my opinion unnecessary.  And it started with the school district's administration, not from any exterior force.  That's important to note. There was no Chamber of Commerce that was functional. There was no Katy Economic Development Council.  The Katy City Council could have given a big hoot about magnificent schools for the suburbs in 1982.

The statement was also made by the superintendent that the district was growing at 2,000 students per year.  Actually that kind of growth didn't appear until 1999 almost 17 years later! 

What conclusion do I draw from all of this?  Perhaps it's that suckers in KISD who fall for bond referendum pitches have been around for a very long time, and that lack of wisdom on the part of the voter has cost taxpayers a bundle of money. 

 By 1993 the tax rate in KISD was $1.63.  The bonded indebtedness was $116,299,953 as of August 31, 1993 (Source KISD Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, for fiscal year ending August 31, 1993).

In April of 1994, the Board and the voters had approved a $90 Million bond issue which was touted to the public as being enough to last through 1999, and by the time Leonard Merrell arrived in June of 1995, about $15 Million had been spent.  Within a year and two months after he arrived, in the summer of 1996 apparently the rest of the money ($75 Million) was nearly gone, and the superintendent and his compliant Board, three years ahead of schedule,  already had their hands out asking for another bond initiative--this time for $130 Million.

What is remarkable about the quickness with which the money was spent is that three of the four elementary schools that were supposed to be built (which everyone can agree are major items of a bond), were not. (The 1994 Bond Initiative called for four elementary schools, McRoberts, Hayes, Williams and Alexander, to be built.  Between 1993 and 1997, only one elementary school opened and that was Hayes in 1995. If “fast growth” is the reason for the District’s large bonds, it is reasonable to assume that schools should be the first necessary project. No one mentioned the missing schools, and by 1996 the media seemed to have forgotten what had been promised. The public did not realize at the time that this was the first indication that the Board had no problem spending bond money in ways not indicated to the public when the bond initiative was proposed. Of course the District is now very clear that bond approval legally means a “blank check,” but it is optional with the Board of Trustees what course it takes. I  believe the District should tell the public up front how it intends to use the bond money.  Over the time of the bond coverage, if the announced items are not needed, then the bonds should not be sold.

School buildings, we can all agree, are the hook which triggers a “yes” vote on a bond, regardless of what else is listed, but if one cannot trust the School District to build them when it says it will, how does one keep voting “yes”?

So, to recapitulate, in the Bond referendum of 1982 out of  6 school buildings requested, one was actually built and they had to bring students from all over the place to fill it up and caused Taylor High School to have only 1200 students!

In the 1994 bond four elementaries were called for.  Only one was built before they were begging for another bond election.

Two for ten!  And then they wonder why we don't trust them!