Former EISD board of trustee members head up the opposition

Former Eanes ISD board of trustees members Al Cowan and Clint Sayers formed a political action committee, or PAC, on April 3 to oppose the $89.5 million bond on the May 10 ballot.

The PAC, known as Citizens for Academic Excellence in Eanes, was formed to allow voters to hear the other side of the bond, Cowan said.

"We believe some of the facilities in that bond are unneeded and add to the [district's] footprint, increasing operating costs," Cowan said.

Cowan said the district already operates at nearly a $4.5 million annual deficit, and adding a new school through the bond would only exacerbate the problem.

The district operates nine schools, and enrollment has largely been static since it reached its peak in 2000, he said. By adding a school, Cowan said he thinks the reserve funds will dwindle until the district is forced into cutting academic programs.

EISD Superintendent Nola Wellman said the idea that district enrollment is flat is a common misconception.

"Our board of trustees has consistently monitored student enrollment, evaluated population growth forecasts and recently commissioned an outside firm to conduct a demographics study in April 2013," she said in a letter. "The demographers found that our resident enrollment has grown by 869 students over the last 10 years."

Wellman said the demographers concluded that the district's enrollment will continue on a steady increase of 1–2 percent annually, mainly in the western portion of the district.

A 1 percent increase in enrollment during the next 10 years would add about 800 students to the district, larger than the size of any current elementary school in EISD, she said.

If the $89.5 million bond is passed by voters it will result in more than $58 million in interest payments over the life of the bond, according to an EISD tax rate impact analysis.

"You are basically paying $148 million to get $89 million," Cowan said. "It is a gamble we don't need to take."

Cowan said the PAC is not against bonds but is for supporting academic programs throughout the district.

"We have very committed parents [in EISD]," he said. "We have excellent teachers and are in a very good situation. We also recognize that we have to make continued investments in our schools. We just think this bond is a recharacterization of the bond that was soundly defeated in 2010. There are unneeded and unnecessary items, and the cost of those items have been bloated."

Cowan said the PAC was formed in part because its members feel the EISD school board has been confusing and misleading with information provided to the public.

"A lot of what has been said [by the board] can be refuted with facts," Cowan said. "The district is talking about travel times for students as a reason for building a new school in the western part of the district, but if you look at comparative travel times, there is little to no difference."

Cowan said travel times for students coming from Cuernavaca Drive and Padina Drive headed to Valley View Elementary is almost identical to travel times for students traveling from Live Oak Circle to Eanes Elementary. Both times are nearly an hour from pick up to the start of school, he said.

"The majority of the bond and master plan are items from the 2010 bond for $150 million, and this master plan would be for almost $250 million," he said. "I think the community has already spoken. To continue to ask the question until you get the answer you want is a discredit to the district. It would be more prudent to preserve our academics and not add to the overhead [costs] when those dollars are precious."

Cowan said the PAC will continue to raise what funds it can to get its message to voters but said it is tough to gather support this close to the election.

"The district has spent a lot of time and money to come up with the same plan that we had in 2010," he said. "I just hate to see [the district] waste money and take unnecessary risks."