The Austin, Texas, school board early Tuesday morning approved 40 bond projects totaling $990 million, but delayed the actual vote for calling for a November bond election until next week.
The approval of the projects was among three major financial decisions trustees made during a 7-hour board meeting Monday night that stretched into the early hours of Tuesday morning. Trustees also approved a nearly $1.5 billion budget and the sales of two district properties totaling $11.8 million.
During the meeting, parents and community members called on the board to wait on calling the bond election so affected schools could have time to vet recently emerged projects, including relocating the nationally ranked Liberal Arts and Science Academy from LBJ High School to a stand-alone school of up to 2,000 student the Johnston campus, where Eastside Memorial High is housed and building a new campus for Eastside Memorial at the original L.C. Anderson school site.
Trustees are expected to call for the November bond election next Monday.
The total bond package totals nearly $1.1 billion, but the district plans to use left over funds from previous bonds and money from upcoming land sales to bring the total down to $990 million. District officials have said that they can keep the tax rate flat if the bond package remains $1 billion or less.
The $1.073 billion in bond projects include building replacement schools for Casis, Menchaca, Brown and Govalle elementary schools, and a new school for southwest Austin, among other projects. It also calls for the LASA move, a new school for Eastside and starting at LBJ a career launch program and medical magnet school.
The package excludes a new elementary school to relieve overcrowding in northwest Austin, the modernization project for Martin Middle School, and a middle school in the Mueller development. Multiple community members petitioned the board during public comments Monday night to include the northeast Austin middle school, a flashpoint in the meeting. Community members threatened to oppose the bond package if the project was excluded, and board discussions grew contentious over the issue.
"If you construct a bond package that follows our city's history of racism and classism, and serves LASA families at the exclusion of the northeast and east and middle schools, I will be, I promise, vocally against," said Kevin Michael Foster, University of Texas associate professor.
A previous administrative recommendation left off LASA and the northeast middle school from projects to be considered in the bond, but last week, trustees proposed the moves that added back LASA.
Trustee Ted Gordon, who pushed to get Mueller and critical need projects back into the proposal, which would have pushed the bond amount over $1 billion, was the only board member to vote against the list. He said the removal of LASA from LBJ causes further segregation in the district. He also said the northeast middle school is a solution to curb charter competition in that area.
But Trustee Cindy Anderson pushed back, saying the board needed to keep the bond package under $1 billion so the tax rate doesn't increase.
"We've got some tough decisions to make, but in the 11th hour, trying to make switches and going above what we set as a priority, I find, really, really problematic," Anderson said. "For our taxpayers who already are going to face the costs of their appraisals increasing, a tax rate increase for this, I'm not sure is our best choice."
There were multiple failed amendments to include the Mueller middle school throughout the meeting. Trustees ultimately excluded the project, however, directed Superintendent Paul Cruz to talk with the Mueller developer and city officials to explore whether they could work out a deal to bring project costs down to perhaps include it in the final vote next Monday.
Earlier in the evening, trustees approved a $1.46 billion budget, which includes an across-the-board employee salary increases of 1.5 percent, totalling more than $8.5 million.
The district's recapture payment -- required from property-wealthy districts to subsidize property-poor districts under the state's school finance system -- this year is expected to be $534 million, an increase of 32 percent, or $127.8 million, over 2016-17. Austin is the largest payer of recapture.
The district will have an operating budget of $914.1 million, that includes placing a Montessori program at Winn Elementary, expanding the early college high school programs to more schools and creating a dyslexia school. More than $54 million will come out of reserves to cover the district's shortfall.
Under the budget plan, the district's tax rate, to be voted on in August, remains flat at $1.079 per $100 of assessed property value.
The Austin school board also approved the bids by RSI Communities for $7.2 million for the 32 acre-Loyola Lane property, at the intersection of Loyola Lane and Ed Bluestein Boulevard, and $4.6 million for the 12-acre Service Center land, located south of East 51st Street.
RSI plans to develop single-family residences, which includes designating 25 percent as affordable housing with priority given to district employees, and families with children attending district schools.
The sales are the first among the set of 10 properties, including the district's 128,000-square-foot headquarters on West Sixth Street, that could yield the district $90 million, and forwards the district's goal of creating more affordable housing for its employees and district families.
