As Hays CISD pursues another bond issue they’re banking on you not having a memory. In 2001, they sold $89 million in bonds with $54.6 million bearing no repayments for ten years. Then Hinojosa left us holding the bag. In 2008, Supt London said, “I don’t know why anybody would not support these bonds. There is no tax rate increase.” Then they sold the majority of the bonds with no principal repayments for 22 years! Then London left us holding the bag.
Lyon took over and spent the whole $88 million from 2008 without regard to the 1/3 drop in construction costs as a result of The Great Recession. The $30 million in cost savings was never realized. We simply built larger classrooms more extravagantly. Then, Lyon reduced class sizes to boot!
Carpenter Hill and Pfluger opened with a net gain of 267 new elementary students district wide! So, we added capacity for 1,600 but spread out 267 students throughout the district when existing schools were hundreds of students below historical enrollments already! Costs escalated with no clear academic gain. Then Lyon left us holding the bag. Do you see a pattern here?
Overlapping debt is also a concern. Texas has the second highest state and local debt per capita in the nation. Hays County has the 5th highest per capita debt in Texas. Kyle has over $70 million in debt. Hays CISD has over $300 million in debt now, before the next bond issue.
We have to deal with growth but we must do so wisely. I’ve heard positive things about Supt. McKie but its too early to see if he is any different from our past used car salesmen superintendents. Anybody can dress up the district for a while. But, can he put us back on a path of fiscal restraint so we don’t overburden future generations with debt on long depreciated assets? Can he fix declining academics? Why should we believe given him our recent history? I need convincing.
Bryce Bales
Manchaca
