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Another School Bond Maybe On November Ballot


Otto Mation

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KATY (Covering Katy) – The Katy Independent School District has begun the process of putting another school bond on the ballot for voters to approve in November. On Monday night the school board approved a charter that will decide if a bond election is needed. If the group approves asking voters to borrow more money, the same charter committee will lead the process.

The most recent bond election was in 2014 where voters approved spending $74,811,893. The bulk of the money was used to pay for six new schools and six campus renovations.

Building new schools and renovating old facilities was very popular with voters, but to make that happen they also had to approve a football stadium that many saw as overly expensive.

The stadium will open later this year and the controversy has not died. The $56 million price tag has now ballooned to be close to $75 million, and many voters feel deceived.

Superintendent Lance Hindt was not employed by Katy ISD at the time of the 2014 referendum. His message to voters is there won’t be any controversial facilities in this bond. He says it’s all about keeping up with district growth of an expected 2,000 students per year.

“It’s a needs bond based upon seats,” Dr. Hindt told Covering Katy on Tuesday night. “I think we are addressing growth in the right way,” he added.

Katy ISD leaders project district growth to be at least 10,000 students by 2021 and at least 17,000 by 2026.

Critics point out that the district’s 2014 projections did not come true after a big downturn in the energy sector resulted in families leaving Katy.

In 2014 Katy ISD had a bond committee consisting of 100 members and an additional 100 alternates. It’s expected that any future bond committee would be smaller as some district leaders felt the previous system became too cumbersome.

The post Another School Bond May be on November Ballot appeared first on Covering Katy News.

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On ‎1‎/‎25‎/‎2017 at 5:35 AM, Otto Mation said:

KATY (Covering Katy) – The Katy Independent School District has begun the process of putting another school bond on the ballot for voters to approve in November. On Monday night the school board approved a charter that will decide if a bond election is needed. If the group approves asking voters to borrow more money, the same charter committee will lead the process.

The most recent bond election was in 2014 where voters approved spending $74,811,893. The bulk of the money was used to pay for six new schools and six campus renovations.

Building new schools and renovating old facilities was very popular with voters, but to make that happen they also had to approve a football stadium that many saw as overly expensive.

The stadium will open later this year and the controversy has not died. The $56 million price tag has now ballooned to be close to $75 million, and many voters feel deceived.

Superintendent Lance Hindt was not employed by Katy ISD at the time of the 2014 referendum. His message to voters is there won’t be any controversial facilities in this bond. He says it’s all about keeping up with district growth of an expected 2,000 students per year.

“It’s a needs bond based upon seats,” Dr. Hindt told Covering Katy on Tuesday night. “I think we are addressing growth in the right way,” he added.

Katy ISD leaders project district growth to be at least 10,000 students by 2021 and at least 17,000 by 2026.

Critics point out that the district’s 2014 projections did not come true after a big downturn in the energy sector resulted in families leaving Katy.

In 2014 Katy ISD had a bond committee consisting of 100 members and an additional 100 alternates. It’s expected that any future bond committee would be smaller as some district leaders felt the previous system became too cumbersome.

The post Another School Bond May be on November Ballot appeared first on Covering Katy News.

View the full article

 

When did they decided this ? Will this ballot initiative be placed on the ballot for the voters to either approve or reject ?

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On 2/14/2017 at 5:54 AM, j_cuevas713 said:

Can someone help me understand why, if I'm understanding clearly, we are having to fund a school not in Houston? 

 

Remember too that bonds are issued by ISDs, which cross city and county boundaries. A small portion of west Houston is in Katy ISD but most of the city is not in Katy ISD. As Blue Dogs said, only Katy ISD voters may vote for this bond.

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