With the presentation of the final bond recommendations to the board of trustees less than a month away, the Klein ISD 2015 bond steering committee and consulting firm DeJong Richter narrowed the list of possible bond recommendations to less than $500 million from an initial list of more than $725 million in possible bond projects.
KISD Superintendent Jim Cain said the reduction in costs would reduce the estimated tax rate increase from 16 cents over the next few years to 11 cents. Currently at 35 cents per $100 of property valuation, the debt service rate would have risen to 51 cents by the 2020-21 school year with the passage of the initial bond package compared to 45.5 cents with the new list of recommendations.
"What we did at our board session last week was say, 'That's probably too much,'" Cain said. "'Let's see if we can right-size this bond and make sure we keep everything that needs to be kept there that puts less pressure on the debt service part of the tax rate.'"
Cain said districts cannot sell bonds, by law, if the debt service rate rises above 50 cents per $100 evaluation, which would have been problematic if the district needed to sell bonds to fund renovations and facilities.
"The [new recommendations] not only stay below 50 cents, but it creates capacity for the next bond issue," Cain said. "Somewhere in the 2019-20 period, we're going to need a bond issue."
Thomas Petrek, associate superintendent of financial services for Klein ISD, said the 11-cent tax increase is based on an estimated increase in the district's property base from $15.7 million to $23 million in the next eight years.
"We feel those are very conservative estimates," Petrek said.
David Sturtz, project director for DeJong Richter, the consulting firm working with KISD on its 2015 bond planning, presented recommendations at the third steering committee meeting Oct. 28. Made up of KISD staff and local stakeholders, the committee will meet again Nov. 11 to consider the final recommendations before the board of trustees receives the recommended bond package at a Dec. 8 board meeting.
The board will vote on the recommendations in January. If approved, the bond will be placed on the ballot in May.
Sturtz said more than $225 million was cut from the bond options from a variety of areas with the largest chunk coming by the way of $132.4 million in life cycle and priority items, or items that may need replacement or repair in the near future.
"We reduced the scope to just the most pressing priority needs as far as things that are mission critical, keeping kids warm, cool, safe and dry," Sturtz said. "We're squeezing a little bit of extra life out of some things."
Total capital costs in the bond were also trimmed from $190 million to $123 million, which included a reduction in facility capital projects from $87 million to $27 million, Sturtz said.
Bond options that remained untouched through the process include $223 million in new construction costs, he said. New planned construction costs would include $120 million for the majority of the district's fifth high school, $46.35 million for the 10th intermediate school and $25.8 million for an elementary school near Springwoods Village.
"Those were deemed imperative from a capacity standpoint," Sturtz said. "You absolutely had to do them, because you had kids there that are coming and you had to fill the seats."
Nancy Radcliffe, co-chair of the 130-member steering committee, said she was present for the two workshop meetings Oct. 21 and 22 following the community dialogue on Oct. 20. A resident of the district since 1979, Radcliffe said the group went through the budget line item by line item, trying to meet the demands of the district and its students while providing for equity across the district.
Although the recommended bond package is nearly finalized, Radcliffe said passing the bond at the polls next May will require a community effort.
"We know through demographic studies and the needs assessments that we're growing very rapidly, and we're going to have many children who are going to need seats and places to be in schools," she said. "We want families that move to Klein to not only have space for those students, but to have the very best programming we can possibly offer and to have equity and facilities across the board."
KISD residents can still fill out an online questionnaire to provide input on the bond process before the final recommendations are provided to the steering committee.
To fill out the questionnaire or for more information on the bond, visit www.kleinisd.net/bond2015.
