Lake Travis ISD board of trustees reviewed a bond advisory presentation Tuesday that recommended the district hold a $251.7 million bond election in November. The call to start the bond election process may be made at next month’s June 20 meeting.
Committee Chairman Jeremy Self said the bond is needed to:
- build the district’s third middle school;
- build the district's seventh elementary school;
- purchase new school buses;
- upgrade, renovate and repair district facilities; and
- upgrade district technology.
The committee was tasked to create a bond issue that would keep the district’s tax rate at the current level and address the district’s highest needs, Self said.
"Based on the data we saw from assessments [of district facilities, technology, furniture and food services], we provided a prioritization," he said. "We, in good conscience, can come and present this to the board [as items that are needed by the district]."
The committee received a list of district requests that totaled about $392 million and separated the request into three categories based on priority: mission-critical needs, substantiated needs and trending needs, Self said. The requests listed as mission-critical make up the presented bond, while substantiated needs and trending needs may be addressed in future bond issues, he said.
Johnny Hill, LTISD’s assistant superintendent for business and financial services, said the monetary estimates outlined in the bond proposal are conservative, and projects from priorities two and three could be added to the list if projects come in below their cost estimates and the district has surplus funds.
