McAllen ISD considering bringing $290M bond to voters in November

McALLEN — A workshop with the facility advisory committee was held Wednesday for a proposed $290 million bond to address facilities and other areas of need across the district while promising to maintain the same tax rate.

The school district gathered the committee, composed of parents, staff and community members, to go over the in and outs of a bond election from how much the district can qualify for, a facilities needs assessment plan and how a Texas bill may impact the timing of the election and the amount of the loan.

McAllen ISD Superintendent René Gutiérrez said the last time the district had a facilities committee with a bond passing was in 2005.

“If you fast forward … to 2025, a lot of things have changed but we haven’t been able to keep up with our needs, facility-wise,” Gutiérrez said. “We have just barely been trying to keep up with our maintenance based on our own budget and that’s not enough. There’s no way we can upgrade and build new buildings with our current budget. … The only way, just like any other school district, can improve their buildings and add new buildings, is through a bond.”

Gutiérrez added that the opportunity to take advantage of the maximum amount of bond money, $290 million, while not raising taxes is either in this upcoming November election or in May 2026.

The decision on when to call or not call a bond election rests with the school board. The committee’s input and recommendation will be presented to the board.

The committee is considering a timeline for the bond due to the possibility of Texas House Bill 19 being passed into law. That law would require bond elections to be held in November. While the ideal timeline for the bond election would be May 2026, the possibility of that bill being passed has sped up the district’s timeline.

HB 19 would also affect how much the district could borrow. If a bond election is called after May 2026, the capacity for the bond would be about $100 million with a likely lower tax rate.

The current tax rate for MISD is $0.9966. That tax rate has two categories.

The Maintenance & Operations tax rate, which is $0.8350 and used to pay salaries, maintenance, instructional material, utilities, transportation, extracurricular and other legal operational needs.

The Interest & Sinking (I&S) tax rate is $0.1616. The district set this tax rate to satisfy voted debt services payments and can only be used to pay voter authorized debt.

A presentation explained that through very intentional planning, such as defeasance debt and maintaining the tax rate, the district can fund up to $290 million in projects without increasing the current tax rate.

Defeasance is explained as paying off an old debt early, retiring the principal amount and saving the interest, which creates a new borrowing capacity.

Not enacting a defeasance in Fiscal Year 2025 would decrease the new bonds capacity to $100 million with a reduced tax rate. Any reduction to the current I&S rate will affect the amount of a bond.

The committee also heard from MGT, a company based out of Florida, that will conduct a facilities assessment and make a report for the district. Nerissa Sparks is the MGT project director and broke down the entire timeline of a district-wide facilities assessment.

Upon receiving the report from MGT, the committee and the board can better identify the needs of the district.

Each need will be its own independent ballot proposition, such as the need for construction, acquisition and equipment of school buildings, a performing arts facility, a natatorium.

“Whatever we decide on that priority list … then we will have to categorize those that belong to which proposition,” Gutiérrez said. “We could have three propositions or four or maybe one depending on what projects we want to do.”

The post McAllen ISD considering bringing $290M bond to voters in November appeared first on MyRGV.com.