In my research, I keep running across items that show, at least to me, that the bonds, over the years, have been proposed in a way that is not really up front with the public. 

 In the 2002 Bond Referendum, amazingly voters approved a $315 million dollar bond that, among other things, included money for high school #6 (later designated as Seven Lakes HS) to the tune of $99 million dollars! 

A. D. Muller and a small group of Republicans opposed the bond and almost defeated it. The vote was 2,737 (50.3%) FOR the referendum and 2,700 (47.7%) AGAINST the referendum.  Nineteen votes go the other way, and this bond is defeated too!

As reported in the Houston Chronicle on June 19, 2003, when confronted by A. D. Muller's assertion that the district knew that high school #6 wouldn't cost 99.3 million as first proposed, or even $86 million for the high school without the 9th Grade Center, the District responded by claiming that high school #6 "could be built for $79.1 million."

As Mr. Muller pointed out, "Of course, the district knew the high school would cost less, and now they want credit for it [keeping the costs down], too."

Overestimating costs by 20 million dollars on one school constitutes a HUGE judgment error in my book!  Such a mistake happens when the administrators don't do their homework, when the architect appears to be trying to get as much money out of the district as possible, and bond committees aren't asking the tough questions. [Or, as we have recently discovered, an architectural firm, in this case PBK, is allowed to direct the building program of the district and set amounts for bond referenda with about a 30% pad!] As it turns out, overestimating is deliberate.

We found ourselves in almost the same situation in 2010--the District asked us to approve a bond referendum that included a high school that will supposedly cost $137 million.  Anybody think that's an accurate number?  Anybody think the bond committee really looked at the numbers and asked any tough questions? Why would a high school, designed by the same architect cost so much more to build just five years later (Seven Lakes cost $77 million in 2005)?  Past history tells us that we shouldn't trust the school district to be honest with us about what they plan to do with the money approved in their bond referenda.

. http://georgescottreports.com/2010/10/27/a-school-district-bond-issue-structured-like-katy-isds-is-a-modified-blank-check-the-videos-outline-the-how-these-columns-outline-the-what/

and

http://georgescottreports.com/2010/10/23/will-the-real-leader-of-katy-isds-planning-construction-department-please-stand-up-dont-stand-up-yet-peter-mcelwain-there-are-a-few-questions-that-need-to-be-answered/