HPISD Board Hears About Need for Bond, Why It Won’t Raise Tax Rate

The HPISD Board of Trustees heard recently from a parent on why voters should support the $137.3 million bond on ballots Nov. 5, and from staff on why passing the bond won’t mean a tax rate increase.

Kristen Dauphinais, a member of the Highlander Band Booster board and the parent of two teens, said that fundraising for the band has opened her eyes to the impact the state’s recapture of tax dollars has on HPISD’s finances.

The bond is needed to provide funds for campus maintenance and improvements, safety, and extracurricular programs and facilities, as well as to make more money available for teacher pay, Dauphinais said at the Board’s Oct. 15 meeting.

“Because of recapture, this bond is not a nice to have — it is a must have,” she said. “Water is leaking through the pipes and ceilings. Instruments are held together by tape and prayers. Fields at the middle school are so bad they cause broken elbows and legs. HVAC systems are failing. The list goes on.”

The bond’s passage won’t trigger a tax rate increase because appraised property values in the district have grown significantly, especially over the last three years, explained assistant superintendent for business services Scott Drillette.

Despite the growth in property appraisals, the district has kept its I&S tax rate, which is used to pay interest and capital on bond debt, stable at $0.17. The district has used the additional funds to pay down millions of dollars of debt early. It has also refunded some of its existing debt, he said.

Board member Blythe Koch added that the district’s efforts have saved about $13 million in interest payments.

If the bond does not pass, staff will recommend that the district maintain a $0.17 I&S tax rate so that HPISD can keep paying down debt early and have the capacity to take on additional debt as needed, Drillette said.

If the bond fails, the “non-discretionary” items included in it won’t go away, said board finance officer Doug Woodward.

“Just because your roof goes bad, you decide not to replace your roof, it doesn’t mean you’re in good shape. And that’s about where we’d be,” he said. “We’d still have things that we have to fix, even if this bond is not palatable to the community.”

Drillette said that the district has funded urgent repairs at the Highland Park Middle School/McCulloch Intermediate School campus with money from its general operating fund, which it hopes to reimburse with bond dollars.

“It would be a difficult budget, extremely difficult budget going forward, if we don’t have a successful bond to pay for these needs,” he said.

Also during the meeting, the board heard an update on the implementation of the district’s ELAR curriculum, which includes the explicit teaching of grammar and focuses on writing instruction across the curriculum.