CY FAIR ISD FACTIONS FACE OFF ON $1.2 BILLION BOND ISSUE BY JENNIFER RADCLIFFE:
Cy-Fair ISD factions face off on $1.2 billion bond issue
Cypress-Fairbanks ISD, Texas’ third largest school system, is asking voters for $1.2 billion to build schools, add support facilities and renovate aging campuses to keep pace with northwest Harris County’s rapid growth.
Voters will decide May 10 whether to approve a bond issue that could increase the property tax rate by about 4.5 cents per $100 of assessed property value over four years, or $65 a year for the owner of a home with a value of $200,000. It’s a contested campaign that has both sides vying for the support of the district’s conservative Republicans.
With 111,400 students and an annual growth rate of more than 2 percent, it’s becoming difficult to maintain the good schools that draw new residents to the area, Cy-Fair ISD leaders said.
“In all honesty, we’re not doing real well. We’re bursting at the seams at some of our schools,” Superintendent Mark Henry said, adding that the district uses about 300 portable classrooms.
The bond plan includes two new elementary schools and a middle school, a competitive swimming pool with seating for 1,500, an agriculture facility and a food warehouse. Money also will be spent on technology, security improvements and renovations.
Despite its continued growth, Cypress-Fairbanks hasn’t sought a bond issue in seven years. Voters last approved facility money in 2004 and 2007 — a total of nearly $1.6 billion. Cy-Fair ISD leaders opted to slow construction of some of the schools included in those bonds because of the economic downturn and state funding cuts. Two high schools and two elementary schools from those bonds are still in the works.
“It just didn’t seem feasible or practical to do a bond election until the economy started to turn around,” Henry said. The district also didn’t have enough state money to staff or operate new schools, he added.
But, now, the political climate has turned. The growing tea party movement is lobbying against this bond proposal, going door to door to appeal to the 21,000 Cy-Fair ISD residents who voted in the Republican primary.
It’s the same type of organized opposition that had a hand in defeating Katy ISD’s $99 million bond issue in November and Lone Star College’s nearly $500 million bond package last May.
“You’re going to see a lot more of these bond issues in May fail,” said Tom Bazan, Harris County Precinct 661 chair for the Republican Party.
One of his major objections to Cy-Fair’s proposal is that the district didn’t break the $1.2 billion into smaller pieces on the ballot. “That’s despicable in its presentation,” he said. “It’s better to offer the propositions in several different packages and let the taxpayers decide which ones they support a la carte.”
To counter tea party efforts, the Say Yes for CFISD Kids political action committee raised roughly $55,000 in March to market the bond. That sum included a $10,000 donation from PBK Inc., an architecture firm that designs many area schools, and $10,000 from the law firm Linebarger Goggan Blair & Sampson, according to a report filed in April.
Debbie Blackshear, co-chair of the district’s long-range planning committee, said bond supporters are lobbying the same conservative Republicans courted by opponents.
Blackshear, a self-identified Republican, said voters like her are willing to support high-quality schools. The district has been a good steward of taxpayer money, building large, efficient campuses, she said. In addition, this bond money should last Cy-Fair until 2020.
“There are things I’m willing to pay for, and education is at the top of the list,” the grandmother and retired CEO of the Cy-Fair Federal Credit Union said. “This bond is about our students, and I would go to the ends of the earth to fight for our students so they continue to have the quality of education that my sons had.” jeniffer.radcliffe@chron.com
MY COMMENT:
Mary McGarr
May 4, 2014 8:40 A.M.
Bond supporter Debbie Blackshear needs to understand that students don't
have the quality of education that her sons had several years ago. She obviously doesn't
know (or is not telling us her true interest in pushing the bond) how things have changed
in public school education. She wouldn't be so supportive if she did. For an explanation,
go to www.marymcgarr.com-- In Katy ISD where I live, we have the same problems with trying
to get an itemized bond. What the voters don't understand is that the Cy-Fair and Katy
ISD's don't have to spend a penny of the bond money on the things they are telling the
public they want to build. PBK is a charlatan, and if you Google them, you will see the
evidence. Katy ISD asked for bond money THREE times before they built James E. Williams
Elementary School! The media doesn't pay attention to the details, and the bond proponents know they can
get away with this stuff. It's not right.
It also bothers me that the Chronicle won't put school
articles on their web site anymore where people can find them to comment. They don't want
to hear what we have to say! And even when one DOES find the place and enters a comment,
they don't take it!