For the first time since 2004, Montgomery County voters will have an opportunity to decide whether to approve a $92 million Magnolia ISD bond referendum with no proposed tax rate increase.
“The bond will have an impact on every campus, including safety, security, rehabilitating and renovating existing aging facilities and infrastructure,” MISD Communications Director Denise Meyers said.
Proposition 1 will allow voters to decide on $84 million for a new fifth- and sixth-grade campus, renovations and expansions at existing schools, and the purchase of new technology, future school sites and 10 new buses, MISD board President Steve Crews said. Proposition 2 will allocate $8 million in bonds for a multipurpose conference center and installation of artificial turf on the district’s two high school football fields, Crews said.
“The Facilities Planning Committee unanimously agreed the district needs to move forward now in order to meet the facility demands and enrollment growth projections,” Meyers said. “The projected enrollment growth in five years is 1,465 students with a 10-year projected enrollment growth of 3,521 students.”
During the Sept. 14 school board meeting, MISD Superintendent Todd Stephens said the district has already surpassed its enrollment projections for the 2015-16 school year with an overall growth of just over 3 percent. As of Sept. 9, MISD has tallied an enrollment of 12,846 students, which is up from 12,458 in 2014-15.
“Our numbers continue to tick up all through the school year,” Stephens said. “We are watching that very closely. We have added staff to adjust for that. Even since the beginning of school this year, we’ve added six additional staff positions based on growth to level out some of our classes in the high range.”
If voters approve the MISD bond, the first signs of major construction on the new projects will begin next summer, Meyers said.
The $2.5 million Williams Elementary School expansion and the $2 million Magnolia Elementary School renovation are expected to wrap up in summer 2017, she said. The junior high school renovations, the new fifth- and sixth-grade campus next to Magnolia Junior High School and the addition of fifth-grade classes at the Bear Branch 6th Grade Campus are slated for completion in summer 2018, she said.
“The current Magnolia 6th Grade Campus will be repurposed for the district,” Meyers said. “The growth is happening on both sides of the district, which means the fifth- and sixth-grade campuses will alleviate the growth at the elementary school level, and there will be no boundary realignment. Children currently in the third grade will be the first class in the new fifth- and sixth-grade campuses.”
As part of Proposition 2, the $2 million artificial turf project for the high school fields could be in place by next summer, and the $6 million district conference center is expected to be complete in summer 2017, Meyers said.
If passed in November, MISD will be able to pay off the $92 million bond in 25 years without a tax increase due to conservative budgeting and property value growth estimates, Meyers said.
