Two citizen committees are working to evaluate the needs and goals of Round Rock ISD—a strategic plan refresh committee and a citizens bond committee, or CBC.

In January the board of trustees directed staff to refresh the strategic plan goals, district vision statement and learning framework. The district invited community members to participate in the strategic plan committee, which held meetings throughout February. The result of those meetings was a set of draft goals, potential vision statements and learning framework.

Once the committee had produced these items, it opened a survey for community members to provide feedback. Using the feedback, it will revisit the language and focus of the goals before presenting a final draft to the board.

The final goals, vision statement and framework could be adopted in April, at the earliest.

Several members of the strategic plan refresh committee chose to participate in the citizens bond committee, the updated charter for which was approved at the board’s regular meeting Feb. 15.

“When the board approved the CBC charter, they did not put an election date in it, and that is very unusual,”  said Jenny LaCoste-Caputo, executive director of communications and community relations for the district. “They wanted to get the committee together and let them look at the needs and decide whether November 2018 or May 2019 is best [for another bond election].”

According to the charter the CBC will consist of three subcommittees: the districtwide subcommittee, which will focus on safety, technology and instruction programs for the entire district; the growth subcommittee, which will focus on facility needs to address growth in the district; and the capital renewal and replacement subcommittee, which will focus on components of existing facility infrastructure.

“The goal [of the CBC] is to develop a truly bottom-up, community-driven process by prioritizing real student need and at the same time remaining fiscally responsible,” said CBC chair Kris Parker, who is also a district parent.

More than 250 community members volunteered to participate in the CBC, according to the district. The three subcommittees will meet as often as necessary to review information and presentations and create a draft report of their findings to be presented to the board no later than June 21 for a November bond election or Jan. 17, 2019, for a May 2019 bond election.

“The big change that we see is that this is going to be driven by the community, the citizens on the committee, and we are utilizing every tool to ensure that we are getting community input beyond that,” Caputo said.

The full committee met for the first time March 20.

“The focus is really to be open, honest and transparent and to communicate and build a consensus among the district so we can move forward in deciding whether there is a need for a bond and, if so, when that may occur,” Parker said.