'Maintaining what we have': Cy-Fair ISD places $1.63 billion bond referendum on November ballot

The Cy-Fair ISD board of trustees called for a four-proposition $1.63 billion bond referendum intended for existing campus and facility updates on Aug. 10 in a 6-1 vote, with trustee Christine Kalmbach opposed.

In a nutshell

After the district tracked necessary updates and received input from the Long Range Planning Committee, or LRPC, consisting of 65 community members, the bond referendum was presented to the CFISD board of trustees in February.

Originally aiming for a May 2 election date, Superintendent Doug Killian said after being notified by Harris County that they would not have enough election devices to support a May election, the board of trustees looked toward November.

CFISD Chief Operations Officer Matt Morgan said all four propositions will be voted on individually, and none of them include new builds for the district.

“What this bond is about is keeping our buildings safe and comfortable, and maintaining our assets,” Morgan said.

Proposed updates, dependent on the bond’s success, include buses, HVAC systems, police radios and vehicles, student, teacher and classroom technology, among other additions with each proposition totaling a different amount and focusing on varying types of updates.

“We have to maintain the facilities that we have, just like a regular homeowner has,” Killian said. “You’ve got things that cost you quite a bit of money that you don’t pay with your day-to-day operating budget.”

Zooming out

Morgan said the outcome of the 2026 bond will affect community members with or without children in the district—adding that a strong school district is directly tied to home values.

“General upkeep of our existing facilities benefits the community at large, because it maintains a strong school district and helps performance of the school district,” Morgan said.

Killian said he’s seen misperception amongst community comments surrounding the district’s finances, and how its budgets can be allocated. As a service organization, personnel costs are heavy on the budget, but selling district facilities would not help pay teachers' salaries, Killian said.

Something to know

The board of trustees also approved a 12-cent voter-approval tax rate election, or VATRE, for the November ballot on Aug. 10.

Leslie Martone, Cy-Fair Houston Chamber of Commerce president and LRPC member, said, because of timing, a potential VATRE was not mentioned by the district during the committee meetings. Though this makes it harder for voters to understand, she encourages the community to educate themselves on school funding from the state-level.

The big picture

Morgan said all four propositions will be voted on individually, and fund lifecycle replacements within existing campuses and facilities—meaning no new builds. Morgan said the proposed updates were tracked on an ongoing basis, and district administration began having conversations about the findings with the board of trustees around a year ago.

Killian said the district must maintain the facilities it already has in order to preserve the district’s current standards—and going out for the bond is how CFISD will be able to do that.

The FY 2026-27 operating budget has a projected shortfall of $80.9 million, according to previous Community Impact reporting. Morgan said while the potential bond funds cannot be used toward the district’s operating expenditures—where the projected shortfall comes from—using the bond for replacements and repairs would avoid the need to use the operating budget for the updates.

How we got here

In fall 2025, the district assembled the Long-Range Planning Committee, made up of 65 community members ranging from students, parents, staff members and others, Morgan said.

Key players

During each committee meeting for the 2026 bond planning process, the district provided insight on each department that would be touched by the bond, Martone said.

Members learned about the process of fulfilling the proposed updates and refurbishments—and potential difficulties doing so.

“The district cannot just go to your local hardware store and fix it over the weekend,” Martone said. “It takes months, sometimes a year, to procure the item and for the cost that [the bond] would be efficient for our tax dollars.”

She said the district has aging assets, and the passage of the bond would protect the district from reaching failing infrastructure. Morgan said when the propositions were presented to the LRPC, the full package bond had a 96% approval rate by the committee.

By the numbers

Texas school districts' property tax rates are separated into two sides: maintenance and operations, or M&O, and debt service.

State law stipulates that each side can only be used toward specific funds with M&O going toward salaries, utilities and other daily operations expenses. The debt service, or interest and sinking, rate is limited to repaying the district’s outstanding bonded debt.

The history

CFISD has successfully gone out for six bonds over the past 30 years. Martone said in the history of CFISD, a bond referendum has never failed.

“I think that speaks volumes to what our residents value in the public education system and how the school district has worked smart to keep our tax rate low and affordable,” Martone said.

Morgan said regardless of which way the voters decide come November, the FY 2026-27 debt service rate is expected to lower by 3 cents, compared to the previous fiscal year, as a result of the district’s debt management.

According to the Texas Bond Review Board, in FY 2024-25 CFISD had $3.5 billion in outstanding debt—about $32,481 per student, based on average daily attendance. Katy ISD, a district of similar size, sat at $29,696 per student.

Breaking down the impact

A 12-cent M&O tax rate increase will sit alongside the $1.63 billion bond referendum as Proposition A on the November ballot.