A citizens committee has recommended that trustees of the San Antonio Independent School District schedule a November election on a $502 million bond package. The proposal is the largest ever for the district.
Trustees must decide by Aug. 24 whether to set the election for Nov. 2.
Bond proceeds would help pay for new classrooms and renovations at several facilities, along with infrastructure and security upgrades.
The district also plans to consolidate several schools.
Celina Peña, co-chair of the 35-member bond committee, said the improvements are long overdue.
“Some of these schools haven’t been touched in 50 or 60 years,” she told trustees last week. “It’s pretty sad.”
If voters approve the bonds, the property tax on an average home in the district would go up by $1.58 a month in 2012, Peña said.
Voters rejected a bond proposal in 2005.
The district’s last successful bond election was for $483 million in 1997, which at the time was the largest bond referendum in Texas history.
San Antonio ISD’s general obligation debt has an unenhanced rating of AA-minus from Standard & Poor’s. The district’s bonds are enhanced with triple-A coverage by the Texas Permanent School Fund.
