WHY I AM NOT VOTING FOR THE BOND PART II:

In order for me to convince anyone to agree with me about opposing the current bond referendum, I need to provide them with facts about my concerns for this proposed bond.  Unlike the school district, I cannot get away with platitudes, false statements, orchestrated visuals, expensive signs (that we pay for) and pompous rhetoric.  So here are my facts.

Last year, the issue that I believe caused the bond to fail was the issue of the buses--that and people thought the cost for the stadium was too much and that it was going to be built in the wrong place.  Just 9 months ago the citizens of our school district defeated the bond referendum by 9 percentage points.  That's huge in a bond election.  The vote was 9,011 against and 7,458 in favor.  I'm guessing that none of those who voted against it have changed their minds about not wanting to vote for a stadium that's right next to another one when the thing needs to be somewhere else in the District, or about thinking it's too costly (their numbers are smoke and mirrors), and since the buses are still gone, that issue isn't resolved either.  The District is just hoping people forgot why they voted the way they did nine months ago and that lopping six schools into the mix and telling us over and over that we are overcrowded will make a difference. 

Katy ISD in 2011 decided that teachers needed to be fired (and they did that based upon an erroneous appraisal of the budget situation by an administrator who did not know that Texas has a biennial legislative body and so budgets are for TWO years not one (the superintendent didn't know that either) and thus they had twice as much money to play with as they thought), and then at the end of the year when no one was paying attention they hid their intention to do away with school buses for little children who lived within .5 miles of an elementary school as a way to save money (which they didn't need to save)! (They hid their intent by placing the matter under a nondescript heading on the Work Study agenda at the May meeting at the end of the school year when no one was paying attention.)

Parents were outraged when the matter came to light in the fall and rightfully so. Apparent leaders emerged to fight the district over the matter.  The district didn't budge claiming they couldn't find bus drivers. (I will never believe that claim with so many people out of work!)  So children were left to walk to school in the traffic, dodging cars, trucks and buses, traipsing over bayous and mingling with alligators and snakes.  The parent leaders were in the news every week complaining about the situation.

One of the parents who emerged as a supposed leader was soon compromised by the offer of fame by the school district.  She now acts as a spokesperson for matters way over her pay grade, in my opinion.  It would be sort of fun to watch if the matter weren't so serious. How easily she sold out is quite remarkable.

All of a sudden NO BUSES is a dead issue. And yet little children three Septembers later are still walking in the traffic, fending off snakes and alligators, in order to get to school. Are we that wrapped up in ourselves that we have forgotten their plight?

As an added insult, those of us who live within .5 miles of an elementary school will find, when we wish to sell our homes, that no one is interested, when they have elementary age children, in buying a home that does not have "free" school bus service! So devaluation of thousands of homes has occurred without anyone but me complaining about it!  That's truly amazing to me.

The lack of buses for ALL elementary school children in one of the largest and wealthiest school districts in the state is not acceptable. And the slogan "NO BUSES, NO STADIUM" still rings true and is a very good reason to vote AGAINST the bond.