Edinburg schools ask taxpayers to consider $112 million bond proposal

EDINBURG - Edinburg school district officials will ask voters for an unprecedented bond issue for the school system - worth nearly $112 million.

With facilities virtually bursting at the seams due to surging enrollment, the money would pay for six new schools and three fine arts buildings at each high school, as well as for upgrades at some of the district's existing school buildings. The bond vote is set for May 10.

Approving the measure would allow the district to qualify for state instructional facility allotment funds, which would pay for 52 percent of the $112 million of building projects, district spokesman Gilbert Tagle said. That state help would not be available if the bond issue does not pass in May.

Francisco Guajardo heads the Citizens' Bond Oversight Committee, a group of residents commissioned by the school board to create the bond issue plan.

"This is not to just catch-up," Guajardo said of the bond vote. "This is to address the (growth) issue in a proactive way."

With a total enrollment of nearly 30,000 students, Edinburg has added more than 5,750 children in the past five years - more than any other district in Hidalgo County. The district expects enrollment to surpass 45,000 students by the year 2016, Superintendent Gilberto Garza Jr. said.

Right now, about 5,000 students go to class in 179 portable classroom trailers scattered across the district's 36 campuses.

But for the district to add new schools, taxpayers would have to help shoulder the cost.

The nearly $112 million bond would raise property taxes by 7.76 cents per $100 of assessed valuation. That means the owner of a home assessed at $95,000 - and with a homestead exemption - would have to pay $62.07 more in property taxes per year, should the district receive the state support.

Weslaco is the only school district in the county to have lower tax rates than the Edinburg school district, according to the Hidalgo County Tax Office.

District voters last approved a bond issue in 1999, in the amount of $60 million, but rejected two similar proposals in 2004.

Fern McClaugherty sits on the bond oversight committee but opposes the proposal. The district desperately needs more schools, she said, but spending taxpayer money on three fine arts centers would be a waste.

And should any seats on the school board change after the trustees' election in November, she may not trust them with a fresh influx of $112 million - a reason she said voters killed the bond proposals in 2004.

"Edinburg has said no and I'm hoping they say no again," McClaugherty said. "If you don't trust the ones that are spending it, you don't know what they're going to do with it."

June is the deadline to apply for state aid for the building projects, so the district is asking voters to consider the bond issue now, rather than in November, Tagle said.

Guajardo said he hopes taxpayers' vote on the bond measure in May focuses on the students, not school board politics. If the bond passes, the oversight committee will remain in place to make sure the money is spent according to the plan, he said.

"If you don't like somebody on the board, go vote. Vote them out," he said of the November election.

Students who participate in drama and other fine arts courses have to practice and perform at other districts' facilities in the Pharr-San Juan-Alamo and La Joya school districts - two areas that approved major bond issues in recent years. The Edinburg school district budgets $100,000 each year just to rent space for fine arts, Guajardo said.

With that shared space in mind, the district needs to build more schools regardless of whether the bond issue passes, Gonzalez said.

Many campuses have no more room for additional portable classrooms, Gonzalez said. Furthermore, while the portable buildings provide classroom space for the growing number of students, the school district is still left with too few facilities such as restrooms and gymnasium space for the students.

"It's a Band-Aid approach to a big problem," said Carmen Gonzalez, president of the school board.

If the bond issue does not pass and the district were to request $112 million to build the schools without the state instructional facility allotment funding, property taxes would have to go up by 16.04 cents per $100 of assessed valuation to cover the building projects.

However, if faced with that prospect the school board likely would scale back its new construction plans and pass a smaller tax increase, said Tagle, the school district spokesman.

"They would probably have to prioritize what is needed the most - probably go for one or two elementary schools," he said.

The district also plans to ask voters to consider a second proposition to authorize more than $37 million in bonds issued in 1998 and used to build four schools and renovate 10 others.

That money was not authorized by voters 10 years ago. But if the voters now choose to authorize the bonds, the district could refinance them at a lower interest rate, saving more than $2 million as the bonds are repaid. Taxes would not be raised if that measure is approved.

But with headlines about economic crisis on the horizon, McClaugherty said she wonders whether now is the right time to spend money on schools.

"Times are getting real rough," she said. "Everybody's real burdened right now."
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Jared Taylor covers Edinburg, the Delta region and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4439.