Placing more of an emphasis on the growing need for skilled workers in the region, the Lone Star College System is seeking voter approval for a $485 million bond package Nov. 4, just 18 months after voters turned down a $500 million bond referendum in May 2013.

LSCS Chancellor Steve Head said the bond package and the message to voters has changed this year, but the need for the bond is as prevalent as it was in 2013 because of a 7 percent bump in enrollment this fall.

"We've been one of the fastest growing community colleges in the country over the last 10 years, but especially over the last five," Head said. "We've actually grown [68] percent since [2007], so we've added over 30,000 students. The average size of the average community college in Texas is 5,500 and [we have more than] 82,000 [credit students] or so this semester."

Effects on the community

Despite the nearly $500 million in projects that would be paid for over time through property tax revenue, LSCS says the bonds would not have an effect on the college system's property tax rate if voters approve it Nov. 4.

Ray Laughter, vice chancellor for external affairs for LSCS, said the system can avoid raising property taxes because of the system's history of paying off bonds before they mature, LSCS' AAA bond rating and the sheer size of its service area.

"If [school districts] have a bond election for $485 million, they're only relying on the tax base of that school district," Laughter said. "We have 11 school districts in our tax base, so we're spreading it out over a very large area. So when you go to a campus facility in Cy-Fair, someone in Kingwood is helping pay for that."

Lone Star approved a 6.8 percent decrease in the property tax rate Sept. 4 from 11.6 cents per $100 valuation last year to 10.81 cents.

Although LSCS officials claim the bond will not lead to property tax rate increases, some groups are still unsure of the effect the bond referendum could have on the service area and whether the growth the system is experiencing justifies the need for a bond.

"We want to determine if there's a need for more buildings and if the evidence is there for the need, then this would be a bond that we would support," said Julie Turner, president of the Texas Patriots PAC.

The political action committee did not support the system's 2013 bond election because the group believed the enrollment growth did not justify the need for so much new construction, Turner said. The Texas Patriots PAC is located in Montgomery County, where 77 percent of voters voted against the bond last year.

Turner said the Texas Patriots PAC is still deciding whether to support the bond, but she would like to see the college system consider alternatives to constructing new facilities, such as offering classes on Saturdays and emphasizing more online instruction.

"We're increasingly moving to online education," she said. "[Colleges] do hybrid classes now between online and group discussion. That's a great model."

Laughter said as many as 30,000 students are already enrolled in online courses at Lone Star College. However, he said it is not a feasible alternative to accommodate the incoming growth as students still require on-campus resources, such as libraries and student services.

"Even though some people will say, 'That's the wave of the future; that's where we're headed,' we're not seeing that," he said. "Students still want to come to campus because of the way they learn, because of the social nature of a college student [and] because of the resources they use there."

Should the bond fail to receive voter approval, Head and Laughter said capping enrollment is a likely possibility in the near future. Head said LSC–North Harris has already been forced to double the number of students in some courses, while the Cy-Fair campus is at 90 percent capacity.

"[Capping enrollment] is just not good business," Head said. "That would be like the ISDs capping enrollments, and we don't want to do that. These students, where are they going to go? What are they going to do? We want them to have an education and go to work."

Head said that one out of every four students graduating from one of the 50 high schools located in the LSCS service area take classes though the system.

Growing workforce programs

The most significant change from last year's bond is the emphasis on workforce programs. The estimated cost for advanced technology centers in the bond total $97.5 million.

New centers planned in the bond package could help meet the growing need for workers in the oil and gas industry, computer information technology and even a growing need for truck drivers, LSCS officials said. Laughter said community colleges are integral to training skilled workers in the Greater Houston area.

"Consider that two-thirds of the health care workers train here at community colleges," Laughter said. "When people think about the community college and if it weren't here, how would it impact their lives? We just would [not] have the kind of skilled workers we have at all the occupations that we rely on."

Partnerships are developing across the community between Lone Star College corporations such as Baker Hughes that are in need of skilled workers.

"The oil and gas industry is constantly and rapidly changing," Baker Hughes CEO Martin Craighead said. "There is a constant state of learning that needs to take place."

Specific projects officials hope to fund with the bond money include three advanced workforce technology centers and health care program expansions at the Kingwood and Tomball campuses.

Each workforce center would be strategically placed to meet workforce needs specific to each area, Head said. The center at Beltway 8 and Hwy. 59 would address the need for petrochemical workers, the Cy-Fair center would help expand the Computer Information Technology program and the North Harris center would offer space for the heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration program.

Turner said she is concerned the advanced technology centers may be expensive solutions to a temporary growing need for employees in industries that are cyclical, such as oil and gas.

"That's a recipe for having facilities that we can't use anymore because workers have shifted to some other areas," she said.

Turner also questioned whether employers who benefit from partnerships with the LSCS could help fund the facilities required for the workforce programs.

Laughter said the employers do not provide funding specifically for construction of facilities. However, he said Lone Star Corporate College, the system's corporate liaison department, contracts with companies to identify and provide training for those corporations.

LSCS also received about $2 million last year in equipment and other donations from employers that partner with the college, Laughter said. The employers also help pay for the buildings through property taxes every year.

"More than 40 percent of our property tax, which specifically includes 40 percent of all of our bond payments, come from the business community," he said. "If you look [at] our total tax contributions, they certainly pay for the construction of those buildings [through] the tax they pay for their property."