ANOTHER ERRONEOUS PREDICTION BY PAT GUSEMAN:

Board Addresses Demographics

By Denis L. Silva, II

The Katy Courier

April 20, 2006

The KISD school board met Wednesday afternoon to address an assortment of issues that will affect the district in a variety of aspects. 

The meeting of seven board members and superintendent Leonard Merrell was held at the Education Support Complex Board Room before approximately 30 attendees.   Of all subjects discussed, the evening focused on delivering the quality of facility and academic programming that is necessary for such substantial growth.

The district currently consists of 48,247 students and experienced a 3,600 students growth increase this year alone.

Among the topics discussed was the financial condition of the district.  As has been reported, KISD is $1.5 billion in debt.  Long-term rates are low but short-term rates have risen over the past six months. [?]

Among the concepts emphasized, Katy takes all investment earning and applies to reduce the bond tax rate [?].  With the up-coming May 2006 $216.5 million bond election [which the District lost thanks to the Katy Citizen Watchdogs], Merrell made sure to make known the significance bonds have on costs.

The thing is that it is important to remind everyone that when you have tremendous facilities such as we do, you have a challenge,"  Merrell said.  "If you can fund with bonds, you can spread costs over a period of time."

The city [sic] was studied and holds a 23.3 percent eco-disadvantage, which affects the perception of quality of life, and that in turn spawns growth.  [?]

City [sic] demographer Pat Guseman whose numbers and projections have been astoundingly accurate during her 10-year association with the district, suggested that inflation and interest rates do not increase more than two percent for the next 2 to 3 years.

She also projected that the student population will continue to grow on an annual basis as it has during the past three-year totals, which is approximately 3,000 students.