$38.9 million tagged for LSC-Montgomery
Experiencing unprecedented student growth over the last five years across its six campuses, Lone Star College System will hold a $497.7 million bond election May 11. If approved by voters, the bonds would fund $38.9 million in improvements at the Montgomery campus and a new 80,000-square-foot campus in the Village of Creekside Park.
Since the college system's last bond election in 2008, Lone Star College enrollment has grown by nearly 30,000 students over five years, about five times the size of an average Texas community college's enrollment, said Ray Laughter, LSCS's vice chancellor for external affairs.
"This bond election is all about growth," Laughter said. "When you add 60 percent system growth in five years you have to prepare for the next wave of it."
Laughter attributed the increase in student enrollment to several factors, including population growth in the region and high school graduates opting to attend community colleges prior to major universities.
"There is a real shift to people taking a year or two years at a community college and then transferring to four-year universities," Laughter said.
The college system has already increased its faculty size to coincide with the student growth, LSCS officials said, with a 36 percent increase in full-time equivalent faculty growth over the last five years. Class sizes increased about 24 percent, and the student-to-teacher ratio has grown from 17-to-1 to 21-to-1.
Bond basics
State law requires voters to approve the issuance of general obligation bonds, which will be paid back by the Interest and Sinking Fund portion of the LSC tax rate. However, this bond election will not impact tuition costs, according to LSCS officials, and similar to the bond elections in 2000 and 2008, will not require a property tax increase. Laughter said the system's AAA bond rating allows it to borrow money at a lower rate and LSCS has historically paid down debt early enough to not require a tax increase.
"We have a track record of being able to do what we say we'll do in terms of the tax rate," he said.
The average homeowner in the district's boundaries—based on the average home value of $136,072—would pay roughly $165 in LSCS taxes per year with a tax rate of $0.1210 per $100 of valuation. In 2012, property taxes generated $140 million in revenue for LSCS, of which $35 million went to pay down debt on bonds, Laughter said.
If the bond package is approved, the LSCS will gather bids and sell the bond money to construct the proposed projects. The college system will pay back the debt over time.
Montgomery campus
When Lone Star College-Montgomery President Austin Lane arrived on campus in 2009, LSC-Montgomery had 9,000 students, a number that has grown to 13,000 over the last five years. The proposed 2013 referendum would provide a 60,000-square-foot student services building and a new 54,000-square-foot University Center, as well as 420 parking spaces and entry improvements to the campus.
"Our growth here has been just phenomenal, and our challenge now is just to be able to serve that growth and ensure we have the appropriate spaces to do that," Lane said.
During the planning process, Lane said a "campus vision session" with students and staff revealed the biggest need on campus to be a new student services center. The new building will offer services such as orientation, registration, admissions, financial aid, advising, testing, transcripts, and graduation services.
"It's really a one-stop shop building," Lane said. "The way it was before you would have to go to three or four other buildings to get [those services] and students get frustrated with that."
Lane said there will be some space for students to study or work on their laptops within the new building, as well as a large designated space for veterans affairs. More than 700 veterans attend LSC-Montgomery, he said.
Another project of the bond referendum is a new University Center, which provides junior, senior and graduate level classes for four-year universities on the LSC-Montgomery campus, such as Sam Houston State and the University of Houston, Lane said. The new building would provide space for new partnerships with universities, while the current 60,000-square-foot University Center will add instructional space for LSC-Montgomery.
"[A new University Center] helps us deal with some of that growth, and [the current University Center is] already set up and designed as a classroom building," Lane said.
The bond money would also pay for 420 new parking spaces and the widening of many of the campus' entrances and exits along Hwy. 242. Lane said motorists exiting eastbound on Hwy. 242 can back up to the campus turnaround in front of the administration building, while accidents are also a concern.
Karen Hoylman, president of The Woodlands Area Chamber of Commerce, said the LSC-Montgomery campus is invaluable to the business community and urged voters to approve the bond.
"The college was very important to [the chamber] from the very beginning, and our goal has not changed in the county, which is to educate our students and provide them jobs to keep them working here." Hoylman said.
Creekside Park
Should voters approve the referendum, LSCS will begin the design phase for an 85,000-square-foot Creekside Center in the Village of Creekside Park soon after the bond election and begin construction by the end of the year. The center—affiliated with the LSC-Tomball campus—would enroll between 3,000 to 4,000 students annually and be located on the west side of Kuykendahl Road, just south of Fire Station 7, located at 26722 Kuykendahl Road.
"The population is already there," Laughter said. "We believe it will be at capacity not long after it opens, with the growth that we see there. It will service a niche with that community that's growing."
ExxonMobil is moving 10,000 employees to its new 385-acre campus near I-45 and the Hardy Toll Road in 2015. The development could augment the population growth on the southwest side of The Woodlands.
"Lone Star College has a history with growing enrollment and spinning off to another campus," said Lamar Casparis, chairman of the Greater Tomball Area Chamber of Commerce. "Tomball's continuing to grow. Creekside will continue to grow because of ExxonMobil."
While the Creekside Center will help Tomball and the southwest side of Montgomery County, Lane said much of the growth at LSC-Montgomery is coming from north of The Woodlands at the Conroe Center. That growth may not be addressed within this bond referendum, but he said the 83,000-square-foot Conroe Center can accommodate about 3,500 students and is about a year from reaching capacity.
If another bond referendum were held in three to five years, he said, the campus may need another academic instructional building to accommodate growth. Lane said student population is coming from Conroe, Willis and Montgomery ISDs, while Huntsville ISD has even shown interest in utilizing the center.
"Given the participation and the need from stakeholders and what they think we need, we would probably want to advocate for some more room in Conroe to expand," Lane said.
With reporting by Marie Leonard and Tamra Santana.
