A final recommendation on what Dripping Springs ISD could place into a potential May bond package will wait another week.
The DSISD bond steering committee requested more time to consider its final recommendation to the board of trustees. The committee aims to present its final recommendation at a special called board meeting Jan. 29.
The committee wants to review concerns, questions and needs from faculty at both Walnut Elementary and Dripping Springs middle schools.
The district is considering constructing a new elementary school that connects to DSMS. Students from Walnut Springs would then be transferred to the new campus.
DSISD officials are also contemplating turning the existing Walnut Springs campus into the district’s new central administration building.
According to the Dripping Springs Voter Survey, the district would be able to finance $132 million in bonds through property taxes using the current tax rate. With this bond package, taxes would not increase.
“Based on some information we had last week on the telephone surveys and on some meetings I had with a couple of the faculty, we decided it was best to give ourselves pause for another week,” Superintendent Bruce Gearing said.
Some of the members of the committee met on the Jan. 22 to walk through Dripping Springs Middle School to make sure they understood the layout of the facility. Members of the committee also met with faculty members of both the elementary and middle scrhools to understand any concerns they may have.
The committee also hired a third party to conduct a full formal telephone survey to gauge the public’s response to a potential bond package. They received 300 full survey responses.
The Dripping Springs Voter Survey was presented at the board meeting on Jan. 22.
The survey asked residents if they would currently support a $132 million bond package.
Results showed that 42 percent would vote for and 39 percent would vote against, with 18 percent undecided.
Comments on the survey results show that many people in the public are uninformed about the district and its needs, and are also worried about a tax increase if they voted for a new bond.
However, after the telephone survey explained some of the bond elements, it cast a second “informed ballot” asking the same question.
The results showed a change, in that 56 percent would vote for the bond, 36 percent would vote against, with 6 percent undecided.
According to the Dripping Springs Voter Survey, the district would be able to finance $132 million in bonds through property taxes using the current tax rate. With this bond package, taxes would not increase.
Those results showed that after people are more informed about the projects, they are more inclined to vote for the bond.
The board of trustees will then still have two weeks before they have to decide Feb. 12 on whether to call a bond election.
What impact the recommendation could hold for the city of Dripping Springs’ Town Center project is also unknown.
As part of the several city of Dripping Springs projects funded through the Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone (TIRZ), the Town Center Project is meant to build a complex on site of the current DSISD administration building.
The proposed Town Center project would house a city hall, library, a new DSISD admin building, and Hays County offices.
“At this point we don’t know exactly what the recommendation is going to look like, so we do not know the impact on the TIRZ yet,” Gearing said.
