Voters in Northwest ISD failed to approve a change to the district tax rate along with four district bond referendums totaling $986.6 million.
Unofficial results indicate the district tax rate will not change from its current rate of $1.3363 to a new rate of $1.4663 per $100 valuation. A total of 34,647 votes, or 64.22%, were cast against the proposed rate change, compared to 19,304 votes in favor of the change.
"The need for the bond and voter-approved tax rate this November was a struggle from the very beginning," said Northwest ISD Superintendent Ryder Warren. "It was something we had to do. The bond was postponed from May. We would have had to go a year between elections, and we couldn’t without asking permission here in November because of our growth."
To comply with state law, the district’s 2020 bond was split into four referendums on school facilities and capital improvements, other recreational facilities, renovations to stadiums and technology devices.
A referendum for facilities improvements totaling $937 million failed to pass with 33,093 votes against, or 59.91%, and 22,146 votes in support. A referendum for work on other recreation facilities costing $23.5 million failed to pass with 36,349 votes against, or 65.75%, and 18,933 votes in support.
A total of 39,265 voters, or 71.29%, voted against a $9 million referendum for stadium improvements versus 15,815 votes in favor, and the number of votes in support of a $16.5 million referendum for technology upgrades fell short of the number of votes against. Voters against the technology upgrade referendum totaled 30,799, or 55.92%, and voters in support of the technology upgrades totaled 22,480.
"It would not surprise me if we recommended and the board accepted another bond package this coming May because of the growth we’ve sustained," Warren said. "The election results changed nothing about NISD. We are going to take care of kids, educate them and do so with a lot of excitement."
Some ballots are still being counted. Under Texas election law, the clerk accepts and counts mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day and received by Nov. 4 if they were sent from inside the U.S. or Nov. 9 if they were sent from outside the U.S.
Visit communityimpact.com/voter-guide/election-results to see results from all local elections in your community.
