Editor's note: This story has been updated to correct the quotes attributed to Sonja Ebel and Stacia Norris.
At its Feb. 9 school board meeting, the Magnolia ISD board approved sending a $465.68 million bond proposition to help with the construction of new campus facilities on the ballot in the May 2 election.
What's changed
As previously reported by Community Impact, MISD proposed bond propositions back in November, but locals voted them down. While the original three propositions totaled $516.92 million, the proposition approved Feb. 9 is $51.24 million less than the total bond proposed in November due to removing propositions B and C.
On the May 2 election ballot, Proposition A is $465.68 million and would be used for projects including:
- High School No. 3: $304.75 million
- Elementary No. 10: $53.97 million
- Elementary No. 11: $57.75 million
- Safety and security: $7.08 million
- Land acquisition: $12 million
- Buses: $5.91 million
- Priority maintenance: $24.2 million
The discussion
MISD is on the verge of overcrowding, as officials discussed at its meeting last January. According to MISD officials, the district needs to approve these bonds sooner rather than later if they are going to build a new elementary and high school in time before the growth of the district catches up to them.
“So we can't stop the growth, and I know that there are parents who'd like us to stop it, but we can't stop it,” board Secretary Sonja Ebel said during the Feb. 9 meeting. “So all we can do is prepare for it, and so if we know the growth is happening faster and it takes four years to build a high school. ... We’re running out of time to make a decision on a bond to build the school.”
As previously reported by Community Impact, MISD is set to enroll an estimated 19,304-20,492 students by the 2030-31 school year, and over 25,000 students by the 2035-36 school year. That would be an over 4,000 student population increase compared to the current population of 15,000 this year.
The action taken
When the bonds failed to pass back in November, the MISD board took steps to talk to the community to find out why the proposals failed to pass. What they discovered was that many parents in the area did not know that the bonds were on the ballot in the first place—board President Gary Blizzard said 87% of the parents in the district did not vote on the proposed bonds.
Assistant Secretary Stacia Norris said that they have “learned from their past mistakes” when it came to informing the Magnolia community about the bonds.
“When I was speaking with people, the two things that I heard the most was that the three propositions confused some people," Norris said. “That they didn't feel like they knew enough about the bonds, so I want to shout out to the communications team for the social media posting that's been happening lately. It’s phenomenal, and it's getting a lot of shares, and people now know more about it than they did before.”
Quote of note
Glenn Addison, who attended the Feb. 9 board meeting and graduated from MISD in 1979, said he knows firsthand the consequences of overcrowding, as when he was a senior, his sister had to go to school in a “bus barn,” which was a portable classroom.
“I hope this doesn't have to happen again in this district,” Addison said. “This is not the third world, we should not have to deal with that. I hope voters of this district will see that and not have to put kids in barns.”
What happens next
As the election draws closer, MISD officials said they will continue to inform the public on the need for the bond to fund infrastructure. Election day is May 2, and early voting is set to begin April 20 and will end April 28.
