BISD votes to put $39M bond on November ballot

After months of walkthroughs, discussions and community input, the Breckenridge Independent School District school board has voted to place a facilities improvement bond on the ballot for the upcoming November election.

The decision follows extensive work by the Facilities Planning Committee, which included district staff, parents and community members committed to improving learning environments across the district.

The election will be held between the hours of 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 4, and early voting will take place Monday, Oct. 20 though Friday, Oct. 31 at to be determined locations.

The proposed bond aims to address critical infrastructure needs across the district, primarily focused on East and South Elementary School campuses – both identified as the most in need of attention during walkthroughs and evaluations.

Choosing between two options presented by committee members – Stephens County Treasurer Kelsey Cornwall, East Elementary Assistant Principal Cassie Wimberley and community member Carl Everett – the BISD school board selected the “white option” at a revised cost of $39 million. The board opted to contribute a larger portion of its fund balance to reduce the bond call and bring the tax rate to a more palatable level for voters.

This option proposed the creation of a new two-level South Elementary School for Pre-K through fifth grade students, with a capacity for 700 students and a footprint of 80,000 square feet. The campus would be located west of the track behind the current South Elementary School. Once completed, the existing East and South campuses would be decommissioned, with $400,000 allocated for demolition of South Elementary.

The school board agreed to contribute about 12.5% of the total project cost – $4,457,332 – bringing the bond call down from $44,573,322 to $39 million. Additional cost-saving measures include forgoing tennis court relocation ($1,233,792) – the proposed new school and parking lot would be built over the existing courts – a $2 million storm shelter reduction and a $1 million Finished Floor Elevation (FFE) reduction.

The alternative “green option” proposed a new South Elementary School for grades 1-5 only, with a 525-student capacity and 60,000 square feet. It included future expansion for Pre-K and kindergarten, minor renovations for East Elementary School's Early Childhood Center for Pre-K through kindergarten students, safety and security renovations at the junior high and existing high school band hall renovations.

Place 5 board member and secretary Carrol Kanady made the motion to place the white option on the ballot and the board unanimously voted in favor.

Throughout the planning process, committee members emphasized the importance of balancing district needs with community resources. Cornwall, who joined the committee out of personal interest and has three kids each at BISD – one each at junior high, South and East.

“We went through bathrooms in all of the campuses and went through the various libraries and a lot of the classrooms. I saw things that I would not have otherwise seen just having kids there,” Cornwall said. “East and South, with the red bars of unacceptable and the very high orange bars of poor, rates overall the worst or in the most need of attention.”

Based on facility walks and surveys, South Elementary was ranked as the most needy campus and in the worst condition, with safety and security issues being the biggest concern. East Elementary was rated not far behind, with similar concerns coming out of the facility walkthroughs and surveys.

Cornwall noted holes in ceilings, parts of bathroom floors missing, outdated electrical panels and old windows with poor insulation.

The committee reviewed a total of 16 potential projects provided to them by bond planning and project design consultants at Jacob & Martin Architecture and Engineering Firm. The committee had a preliminary ranking of the 16 candidate projects, ranking them on a scale of 1 to 5 – 1 being least impact and 5 being maximum impact.

The final ranking cut one project off that would have had a cost of $57 million. Out of the 15 potential projects, the new South Elementary School for construction west of the track rated highest at 4.57.

The projects were split up between elementary core campus projects and district-wide, all other projects.

The next highest rated project was renovation to the junior high safety and security, with a score of 4.19. Other portions of the “green option” included the new South campus for first through fifth graders scoring a 2.69 and a 3.09 score for existing band hall renovations.

Wimberly spoke to the emotional and educational impact of the proposed improvements.

“We as district employees do our very best work with what we have and we certainly do make things work every single day. However, it is time to give our kids and teachers better,” Wimberley said. “We want to be able to give them a place to be proud of. A place where they say, ‘Yes, I am from Breckenridge.’”

The financial impact on taxpayers is expected to be minimal for many households. With the homestead exemption increasing to $140,000 and the average home value in BISD at $145,518, most residents fall near the threshold where little to no school district tax is paid.

“On average, people are right at that mark where they’re not paying much on the ISD tax anyway," Cornwall explained. “There will be a substantial number of Breckenridge households that will not be impacted by this decision.”

The proposed bond would result in an Interest & Sinking (I&S) tax rate of $0.37 per $100 of property valuation – well below the district’s maximum allowable rate of $0.50, which would correspond to a $57 million bond.

Everett noted that two weeks before the committee’s last meeting, they were leaning towards the green option before more started leaning towards the white option.

“It wasn’t unanimous either way. But what is unanimous is you guys are going to have to do something for our school system because we’re in pitiful shape here,” Everett said. “I’ve decided that even though I’m for the [green] option…I’m going to vote for either one of them because I think we need it. But it’s not just what we want, it’s what the people out there vote for.”

Everett stated that there will be a third of people that won’t vote for it no matter what and another third of people who do vote for it no matter what.

“It’s going to be those third of the people that are in the center that are going to determine which way this vote goes,” Everett said. “...I hope this passes because I don’t think we can afford another defeat doing this thing.”