The price tag for the bond package, the largest in AISD's history, would be a $0.01 property tax rate increase.
According to a presentation given by Matias Segura, AISD chief operations officer, AISD's 2023 tax rate will still be the lowest in the past eight years.
The package, which stood at $2.25 billion during the board's bond work session Aug. 9, was revised up an additional $189 million prior to the Aug. 11 vote.
The bond package will be presented in November to voters within the district's boundaries as three propositions. Proposition A asks voters to approve $2.32 billion for improvements to the district's schools, including security and energy efficiency improvements; Proposition B asks voters to approve $75.54 million for technology upgrades; and Proposition C is $47.43 million for improvements to stadium facilities in the district.
Interim Superintendent Anthony Mays expressed his enthusiasm for the bond package's focus on lower-income schools.
"What is exciting about this proposal is that it represents the biggest investment in students in historically underserved communities and in Title 1 schools while providing a benefit to every campus in our district," Mays said during the Aug. 11 meeting.
Kevin Foster, District 3 trustee, after expressing concern that the administration's $2.25 billion recommendation at the Aug. 9 board work session moved funding away from Black and brown students, lent his enthusiastic support to the amended $2.44 billion recommendation during the Aug. 11 meeting.
"The bulk of funds in this package go to schools in historically underserved communities—overwhelmingly," Foster said. "I haven't been able to see bond packages across the land, but I'm willing to bet that you will never see—or have not seen—such an equity-forward effort."
A $1.05 billion bond sent to Austin voters by the board in 2017 was passed with 72% of the vote.
With just under three months before the election, district personnel are planning to implement their public outreach strategies.
Jason Stanford, AISD chief of communications and community engagement, said the plan is to share the facts of the bond package with the public.
"We're going to be planning and mapping out all the community events—we're going to go to where the people already are," Stanford said. "[W]herever people are gathered, whether it's high school football games, church picnics, that sort of thing—we're going to be there talking about the bond and what's in it."
Election Day is set for Nov. 8.
