Latexo ISD Discusses Bond Proposal
By Will Johnson
Messenger Reporter
LATEXO – In an interview with Latexo ISD Superintendent Michael Woodard and Board President Kelly Nicol, the superintendent said the board has been discussing the possibility of placing a bond initiative on the May 2 election ballot.
“We are wanting to add some things to the district. One of the biggest parts of the bond would be a multi-use, multi-faceted facility that we could use not only as a gym, but also as a community event destination. We could do our graduation here. As of right now, if we had to do a district-wide meeting with all our students, we don’t have one place we could put them all comfortably,” Woodard said.
Currently, Latexo holds its graduation ceremony in the Crockett Civic Center.
“We could do assemblies, outside community events, outside concerts and old-school ‘donkey basketball.’ This way, we can build our community back into the school which is something we’ve been missing the last couple of years,” the superintendent explained.
Woodard said the discussions have centered on a $5 million figure.
“Our elementary bond will be paid off soon and we don’t want to increase the tax payments for any of our taxpayers. I went to our finance guys and asked them what they could give us if we kept the same tax rate for the next 25 years. They said it would be $5 million and that’s how we arrived at that figure,” he said.
Currently, the district has a tax rate of $1.129 per $100 of property valuation made up of a $0.97 maintenance and operations tax along with $0.159 interest and sinking tax.
Asked specifically if the bond were to pass, would there be an increase in the tax rate, the board president asserted there would not be any tax increase from what is currently being paid. “… and in fact, we might even be able to come in at a lower a tax rate.”
“We are just asking the taxpayers to continue with what they have been doing all these years and trust us to build a great school for them,” Woodard added.
The superintendent and board president were also questioned about how they planned to overcome the stigma of past bond failures.
“We are going to ask that the community take part in this and build trust that we will come away with facilities that the entire community will be proud of. I am going to talk with as many taxpayers as I can to give them the right information. We’re going to be upfront and we are not trying to hide anything. We are just trying to build what is best for our district and our kids. It will take lots of communication, meetings and talking about it over a cup of coffee,” he said.
Given the recent passage of Lovelady ISD’s bond initiative, Woodard was asked if he planned to hold community meetings like they did in Lovelady.
As a matter of fact, he replied, the district had a meeting scheduled on Friday, Jan. 17 with past school board members.
“We would like to receive their input. We would like to see what their thoughts on this are and what they want. We want everyone’s input on this.
Concerning where the money would be spent if the bond was to pass, Woodard and Nicol said the majority of the funding would go towards the proposed multi-use facility, but stressed they would like to give the front of the school a facelift in an effort to improve the appearance of the nearly 40-year-old building.
“We also want to add a CTE (career and technical education) wing. Our health sciences program is growing. We would like to build a CTE wing just for classrooms. We also have a need at the elementary where we are using the gym and the cafeteria as one. We would like to build a seating room, cafeteria only,” the superintendent said.
The current bond used for the elementary construction will be paid off in February of 2021. If the proposed bond was to make it onto the May ballot and pass, Woodard was asked if there would be any overlap between the expiring bond and the new bond.
“Payments on the new bond would begin after the old one is paid off. We don’t want any overlap. We are just asking for approval now to get the steps going,” he said.
A vote on the matter did not take place during the board meeting held on Tuesday, Jan. 14 because as the superintendent said, “We just wanted to start communication with the board. We want to be as transparent as we possibly can. Next, we want to go to the community. Right now, we are just trying to get all the facts we can so we can move forward and make the right decision.”
Woodard added he felt the matter would be placed before the trustees around the first of February.
“I think we are all excited about this. I think the big selling point – this time as compared to last time – is that we are not asking for any new money. We are not asking for any more taxes than are already being paid,” Woodard said.
“We want input from the community,” Nicol said. “I think that is the process we are going through, right now. The first step is going to the board members who have served Latexo ISD over the past 25 years. They have walked in our shoes and have a lot of knowledge we can pull from. One of the things I have learned in talking with past board members is that the community along with the board has been working towards a new multi-use facility for a long time. Good decisions were made throughout the terms of all past members to get us to the point where this is a real possibility. Hopefully we can all build something the community can take pride in.”
Will Johnson may be contacted via e-mail at [email protected].