The Katy ISD Bond Election Flyer

In the 2006 Bond Election our tax dollars paid for a flyer to be sent to every resident in Katy ISD.  The flyer had the following statements on it.  I have annotated the statements to show how the District manipulates facts.

THE BOND PACKAGE includes:

"Developed by a 97-member community bond planning committee." [Actually they asked about 150 people to be on their committee, and only 97 replied.  On any given night when they met, no more than 75 of them showed up.]

"Repairs & additions for existing facilities " [No mention of what those were as the District doesn't like to be pinned down.]

"Construction of new schools to accommodate continued growth."  [No mention of which schools, when they would be built, how much they cost--they don't want to be pinned down later when they don't get around to building all of them.]

"Buses, portable buildings, land acquisition, bond costs."  [They REALLY didn't want to remind anyone of these  amounts as this is one of the places where they spend on anything they want.]

"Total Bond $269,472,225."

"46.5% of this bond package will provide additions/improvements for students and staff at existing facilities "

"44.5% will fund new schools to meet projected growth through approximately 2009, with 9% for other items."[Other items here must mean Astroturf for 6 high school practice fields.]

"47% of KISD campuses are more than 15 years old.  Delaying repairs allows facilities to deteriorate and, long-term, makes them more costly to repair."  [Before our school district increased the bond debt by 600% from 1996 to 2006, we always seemed to have plenty of money in the M&O part of the budget to keep up the repairs on our buildings and didn't have to wait for a bond to have the funds.  Now, that's evidently not the case.]

"Katy ISD's enrollment is projected to increase by approximately 9,000 students between now and 2009." [Actually the number increased by 11,270 students. Their demographer isn't too accurate with predictions. That's why we find ourselves needing new schools before they predicted!]

"The bond planning committee has been designated by the Board of Trustees to review the progress of bond-funded projects during the three-year period of this authorization." [That oversight was bogus, and we all know it. If the Oversight Committee had been in place, they would never have approved the Astroturf Debacle.  If they had, Frailey would have had someone to blame besides himself for his bad judgment.]

"On the back of the flyer the District states that "Total school taxes for the average homeowner will decrease as a result of House  Bill I enacted by the Texas Legislature in 2006." [ Even so KISD has raised our tax rate several times since 2006.]

""Katy ISD has a proven record of academic excellence and sound fiscal management that is spurring rapid growth."

"KISD students consistently score well above state and national averages on college entrance exams and the TAKS state accountability test." [It was the next year when the TEA rating of Recognized was downgraded to merely "Acceptable" because KISD students didn't do too well on the science portion of the TAKS. They didn't do too well on science the next year either, but the TEA lowered the standards to accommodate the low scores.  This year Katy ISD is ranked at "Recognized" while a great many suburban school districts in the state are "Exemplary" and almost all of them are "Recognized" as the TEA has further lowered the standards of the TAKS test.  Parents might want to move across town to Clear Creek ISD to get into an "Exemplary" school district. And while the SAT mean score in 2006 was 1099, by 2007 it had dropped to 1088 and in 2008 had gone to 1079.]

"KISD is the largest Houston-area district to achieve a "Recognized" rating from the TEA." [And we're still stuck on "Recognized"  while in the interim, the standards have been lowered.]

"KISD saved taxpayers $60 million over the past 10 years by refinancing bonds at lower rates, paying down debt with bond investment income and selling bonds at optimum times based on market conditions." [So what did KISD have to do with any of this?  Their financial planner directed them toward these activities, and other school districts did the same.  KISD is not unique.]

"KISD is one of the state's most credit-worthy school districts with AA bond ratings from Moody's and Standard and Poor's." [The bond ratings are based not only on KISD's "credit worthiness" but also that of the State of Texas.  The TEA maintains a "bond guarantee" fund in case it's needed and to lower the cost of the bond interest rates for school districts. The District uses that back up to get a AAA rating, actually.]

"KISD received a Superior Achievement rating on the Texas Schools FIRST (Fiscal Integrity Rating system of Texas) financial accountability system."  [While this is a nice award, ask the District how many other Texas Districts also get this award.]

"Katy ISD constructs its schools at or below the Houston-area average." [The District manages to do that in my opinion because over time they have set the example that is followed by all other Texas school districts of manipulating the inflation rate, paying too much for school construction and architect's fees, and otherwise allowing costs to unnecessarily escalate.  We are in the same boat with all the other districts, so of course our costs are going to be similar.]

"KISD sells bonds only when and if funds are needed and only up to the amount authorized by voters." [If that is the case why do we have excess bond funds to put in the fund balance, or to put where they draw interest that we use to buy down the debt (quoted from elsewhere on the flyer!), or to build Astroturfed practice fields that were not in the bond referendum and which no one but the superintendent wanted, and NO ONE NEEDED?]

"Using bond funds for construction allows the district to spread the cost of buildings over 20-30 years--just as a homeowner finances the purchase of a house." [Well, not quite. The homeowner will be living in that house over those 20-30 years, while many who enjoy the high priced buildings will be long gone, leaving someone else to foot the bill. Even our last superintendent moved out of the District while still employed here--could it be so that he wouldn't have to pay KISD's high taxes?]

"The district sells bonds that mature at different times, so bonds for items with a shorter lifespan (such as computers) are paid off before the purchase becomes obsolete." [I'm guessing that we don't ever pay off bonds in three years and that's how long a computer is viable. Reportedly Leonard Merrell thought of bond money as a  "big pile o' money" (actual quote from Merrell) which tells me they aren't thinking about which part of the "pile" they draw from for anything.]

"Without bond funds the district is be [sic] required to pay for capital items from the general fund, which pays for salaries, instructional programs and other operating costs." [That would be called "living within one's means for a private citizen."]

"Approximately 20% of Katy's current annual debt payments are funded by the state." [And let me remind everyone that your tax dollars pay for THAT 20% also.]

"Between the reduction of debt through annual payments on bonds and increases in taxable values, the district has the capacity to sell new bonds without raising the debt service tax rate beyond $.40." 

"A Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone (TIRZ) agreement initiated by the City of Katy in 1999 allowed construction of the arena (Merrell Center) using property tax revenue generated by the Katy Mills Mall that state funding formulas would have otherwise withheld from the District.  The bonds are issued by the City of Katy and the Katy Development Authority, not Katy ISD.  The Merrell Center has never added any additional tax or debt burden to the district and will not in the future." [Notice that they didn't say that the Merrell Center wouldn't cost the District anything or that Katy ISD traded off the taxes that are generated by the mall for years into the future for an up front benefit.  As best we can tell (because they don't post all the pertinent information) the Merrell Center has never paid for itself maintenance wise with rentals. And during the 2006 bond election, (from April 2006 to November 2006) the District deliberately hid the fact that the Katy Copperheads were not paying for their use of the facility (the news reports said that they paid once, and then the second check bounced and then there were no more payments.) Only much later was some of the lost revenue repaid.  We still haven't been told if all the booster clubs that worked for free, selling programs were paid.

[See Houston Chronicle Article by Helen Eriksen on May 8, 2008 on the Merrell Center and it's deficit operation: http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/archive.mpl?id=2008_4561958  ]  [The Chronicle has now taken this article off-line.  One can guess why they did that!]

Obviously, the District tells the public what it wants them to know, and they put their spin on it big time.

So when you get their 2010 bond propaganda flyer closer to the election in October, read it with care--it's pure spin, and you'll get dizzy if you look at it too long!