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After voters struck down four ballot propositions in November 2024, East Central ISD is trying again with one $309 million bond to address enrollment growth.
If voters approve the bond, the district plans to use the funding to build a second high school and two new elementary schools. Its previous bond proposal was $360 million and also included funding for a stadium and athletic facilities at East Central High School.
“We are experiencing a tremendous amount of growth,” said Brandon Oliver, East Central’s director of marketing and communications, “[with another] 44,357 new housing units going up.”
East Central currently has about 11,500 students. The district’s demographers predict the district will have more than 25,000 students by 2033.
Oliver said four of the district’s elementary schools are already above capacity or will be soon, including some of the school’s built with the bond voters approved in 2022.
He said the elementary schools are “busting at the seams, using every conceivable space to do learning. The gym, cafeteria, library. We're using every space available.”
East Central’s only high school has about 3,600 students, which Oliver said makes hallways very crowded during passing periods.
“I've heard students say they have to walk with their head down, basically, because it's, it's so overwhelming to have that many people, body to body, and not being able to adequately use the facilities,” Oliver said. ““And that's honestly a big contributor to issues like bullying and fighting, being that close to each other and stretching thin the staff ability to monitor.”
The high school is projected to have 4,200 by 2027 and 5,000 by 2029 if another high school isn't built.
If voters don’t approve the bond in May, Oliver said the district will have to buy at least 14 portables with a starting cost of $3.5 million out of East Central’s operating budget. Passing a bond lets school districts sell bonds to pay off their debt instead of using funding that is intended to go for salaries and programming.
“Programming, staffing, all of that will be under consideration [for budget cuts],” Oliver said. “We're already in a deficit due to a lack of state funding. And now we're going to take an additional three and a half million out of that? You start thinking about those things where maybe a teacher can handle a class of 35 students.”
If voters approve the bond, East Central estimates the property tax bill of a home worth $280,000 will go up about $157 a year starting in 2027. Homeowners who are over 65 or who are disabled veterans are exempt from property tax rate increases.
"Our tax rate, the East Central tax rate is the lowest out of the 19 Bexar County area school districts," Oliver said. "We want to be good stewards of taxpayer money. That's a bragging point for us, to be the lowest school tax rate in the area. ... And even with this proposition going up, we figure we will still be the lowest tax rate in the area."
