DALLAS — The rapidly growing Keller Independent School District will build two elementary schools, or else just one and a second football stadium with proceeds from another bond package. A new middle school and renovations to a natatorium are also being considered.
Later this month, trustees of the suburban district about 18 miles north of Fort Worth, will decide on the size and scope of the district’s third bond referendum in four years.
Officials want to keep the package under $200 million and put it before voters in November.
“We wanted to take it right up to about $200 million and left a little incremental capacity in there,” said deputy superintendent Mark Youngs. “We’re right at the top end of the 50-cent per $100 valuation and wanted a little wiggle room built in.”
A citizens bond advisory committee finalized its recommendation about two weeks ago at $167.9 million for the district’s 22nd elementary campus, an intermediate-middle school campus, a second athletic stadium, and renovation of a facility into a full-day kindergarten.
The decision to wait on a 23rd elementary school was due in part to slowing growth. The district currently serves an enrollment of more than 28,000 students in 32 schools.
“The committee took a lot of time to discuss every facet of the district’s proposal,” committee member Tom Soulsby said in a release. “At the end of the day I think we disagreed on some portions, but we all agreed on the need for all of the facilities.”
Enrollment rose 8% annually the past five years, and the same level of growth — roughly 2,000 students a year — is forecast for the next few years with the student population projected to top 40,000 over the next decade. But just as elsewhere, residential expansion has cooled somewhat in North Texas the past year or so.
The school district serves parts of Fort Worth, Colleyville, Haltom City, Hurst, North Richland Hills, Southlake, Watauga, Westlake, and most of the city of Keller.
The population of Keller has increased 28% to about 35,000 since the 2000 Census. The Texas state demographer projects Tarrant County’s 2000 population of 1.4 million to double by 2040.
Keller ISD’s fourth high school is set to open next fall. Youngs said the project was initially expected to cost about $80 million but will end up closer to $84 million, as construction costs continue to escalate.
“We ended up tapping the fund balance for $3.5 million to cover it and that’s after some value-engineering cuts we’re made,” he said. “We went to the board and explained it’s best to go ahead and tap the more-than-ample fund balance … finish this high school right the first time and not have to go back and add on to it later.”
First Southwest Co. the financial adviser to the district, and McCall, Parkhurst & Horton serves as bond counsel.
In November 2006, district voters approved a pared-down $142.3 million bond package that didn’t include the second athletic stadium. The district exhausted that authorization the following February.
Ahead of the sale, both Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s Investors Service upgraded the district’s underlying credit.
Standard & Poor’s raised it to A-plus from A, citing significant ongoing economic development. Moody’s upgraded the debt to Aa3 from A1 due to the rapid tax-base growth with high wealth levels.
Analysts said the district’s assessed value rose four times what it was a decade ago to reach $8.4 billion for fiscal 2007. Officials expect rapid growth to continue with the assessed value topping $14 billion by fiscal 2015 due to continued residential development and projected commercial development, according to analysts.
The general fund balance has exceeded 25% of revenues annually for the last five years, analysts said.
