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HISD Board Approves $1.9 Billion School Building & Renovation Bond for November Ballot

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HISD offers an detailed overview of the bond issue and school projects it would address. CLICK HERE

(Ericka Mellon, Houston Chronicle)
Houston voters will get to decide in November whether to approve the largest school bond package in recent Texas history after HISD trustees endorsed the plan on an 8-1 vote Thursday night.

The school board voted to seek a $1.9 billion bond issue that would rebuild or renovate most of the district’s aging high schools, remodel several elementary and middle schools and upgrade campus technology.

The plan calls for phasing in a tax rate increase expected to cost the owner of a $200,000 home an extra $70 a year in 2017.

Houston Independent School District leaders now must work to rally voters after some on the board joined other elected officials in casting doubt on Superintendent Terry Grier‘s proposal over the past two months.

“There are school buildings in Houston that are not going to last another four years for us to make up our minds,” board president Mike Lunceford said after the vote. “We had to get a plan rolling. We have schools that are in bad shape.”

Trustees voted after hearing from roughly 60 speakers, including principals and parents who pleaded for modern schools and some community members who complained the process to craft the bond plan lacked transparency and shortchanged some campuses.
(Read the full story at the Houston Chronicle)

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