Early voting nears for bond election

In one week the Huntsville Independent School District is putting a bond election before voters to renovate and expand nearly every campus in the district. 

The $127 million total bond proposal also seeks to construct a fine arts auditorium, new baseball and softball fields and a new athletics stadium. If approved, the district would realign to four elementary schools, one middle school and one high school.

“The committee felt very strongly about impacting every child in every part of the district,” Huntsville ISD Superintendent Dr. Scott Sheppard said during the final community informational meeting on Monday. “Currently in Huntsville we send kids to five separate school buildings over the course of their lifetime. Going to a standardized approach that most districts in Texas follow is advantageous developmentally, educationally and a convenience standpoint for families.”

As required by state law, the proposals are split into a pair of propositions that voters can choose from. Proposition A includes all of the academic, fine arts and baseball/softball enhancements, while Proposition B consists of stadium and tennis court construction.

“Voters have the opportunity to vote on the propositions independently. Voting for one doesn’t mean that you can’t vote for the other,” Sheppard noted.

If approved, the bonds are estimated to cost taxpayers a maximum of 9.94 cents per $100 of assessed value. This would mean that a homeowner would pay a maximum of $74.59 more per year for a $100,000 property. There would be no tax increase for property owners 65 and older with a homestead exemption.

“If the propositions pass you don’t sell $127 million in bonds the next day, so you will only increase the tax rate enough to pay the debt. The bond amount changes over time and the tax rate will change over time. We are also very certain that we overestimated the maximum tax impact. If interest rates stay anywhere close to where they are today, and with continued growth coming to the area, we doubt that we would ever reach that maximum tax increase. “

According to Sheppard the increased debt would not only update the aging infrastructure, but also free up maintenance and operations revenue for teacher salary increases and additional student programing.

“There’s a price that we pay for not having bonds and not having debt,” Sheppard said. “Major purchases such as buses, technology and renovation have to be paid with maintenance and operations dollars. Most districts spend 85% of their maintenance and operations dollars on people in the form of salaries. In Huntsville we spend 70%. Not because our school board is stingy, but because without debt we have to pay millions of dollars out of maintenance and operations money to maintain aging facilities.”

If approved, the district plans to start issuing bonds by the end of summer and begin construction in early fall. All projects would be completed in about three years.

Early voting will be held April 19-27 at the Walker County Storm Shelter. Election Day is May 1.

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See the video from Monday night’s informational meeting here. More information on the 2021 Huntsville ISD bond can be found here.