Georgetown school board convenes bond committee

The Georgetown ISD board of trustees voted to convene a bond committee during is Dec 14 meeting.

The citizens advisory committee, known as a CAC, is made up of citizen stakeholders. It will evaluate existing district facilities, enrollment projections and other data and provide facility and equipment recommendations to the board as well as recommend whether a bond should be called in November.

Although a committee is formed, it does not mean a bond election will be called, officials said.

Instead, upon evaluating the district’s needs, the committee make a recommendation to the board in August. Then the board will decide whether to accept that recommendation and call a bond. The deadline to call a bond is Aug. 16 in order to appear on the November ballot.

“[The CAC] will allow us to engage the community in a process that will extended all the way until August to determine whether or not to pursue a bond election in November 2021,” Superintendent Fred Brent said.

GISD is currently on a three-year bond rotation calling its last two in 2015 for $160.6 million and in 2018 for $150.5 million.

School bonds are voter approved by those living within the school district.

“While there’s a lot of things we are uncertain about, we are certain that this is something we need to keep on our radar,” Brent said. “Going through the process is something that will allow us to get community feedback, allow for a community survey [and] engage the community in the process to help us determine the course of the future.”