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The community task force charged with recommending a bond package for the San Antonio Independent School District is having to adjust to new expectations following a lower property value estimate released in April.
The news comes as San Antonio’s third largest school district weighs both a bond election and a Voter-Approval Tax Rate Election, or VATRE, in November.
Bond elections fund building and infrastructure projects, while VATREs give school districts additional revenue to pay for teacher salaries and programming.
During SAISD’s board meeting Monday evening, CFO Crystal Hermesch told trustees that Bexar County’s flat property values combined with higher bond interest rates have lowered SAISD’s bonding capacity.
In December SAISD told task force members that the district could go out for a $450 million bond without raising the bond tax rate. Now, with the new estimates from Bexar County, SAISD officials project the district can only access $300 million without raising the tax rate.
Mario Barrera, the chair of the bond task force, told trustees the committee was originally looking at a $750 or $900 million bond, but now he’s hesitant to go beyond $600 million.
“We are SAISD. We are our city's namesake. Our kids deserve better,” Barrera said. “And so I think with $600 million, we could do two new schools, two replacement schools, and it would be a lot less burden than $750, $900, a billion that we were looking at at one point, just taking into account the current economic situation.”
Barrera said the committee is prioritizing critical and deferred maintenance in the bond, alongside safety, security, and technology. Some money is also set aside to replace school buses that don’t have seat belts. Still, Barrera said he thought it was important to spend at least a little money on complete building overhauls.
“We cannot fall behind,” Barrera said. “We need to increase our inventory of new and renovated schools. ... Right now, we’ve only got an inventory of, I think, approximately 17 very, very nice schools.”
Barrera said Young Women Leadership Academy Primary is one of the two schools the committee would likely recommend for replacement, due to its high enrollment and poor condition.
The district’s last bond in 2020 was for $1.3 billion.
Hermesh also provided trustees with more information about a possible tax-rate election, which would be used to operate schools rather than renovating them.
Texas lets school districts access up to 17 additional cents to operate schools with voter approval. SAISD is already using almost 14 of those 17 cents.
Those 17 cents are broken down into eight golden pennies, which the state guarantees funding for at a higher level, and nine copper pennies, which are only worth about half as much. Golden pennies are also exempt from recapture, often called Robin Hood. Copper pennies are not exempt. If revenue exceeds the threshold, the state will collect it and use it as part of the state’s portion of education funding.
Hermesch told trustees Monday that accessing the final three cents available to the district would generate about $7 million dollars annually for SAISD.
“Approximately on a $230,000 home, with the homestead exemptions applied, it would be a pretty minimal tax increase at around $23,” Hermesch said.
Hermesch says those final three cents could push SAISD over into recapture if enrollment declines and property values increase, but current projections still put the district with a net gain of about $7 million a year for the next few years.
Combined with a $600 million bond, SAISD’s new combined tax rate would be about seven or eight cents higher.
SAISD trustees will need to decide on both possible election items by August in order to be on the November ballot.
