Friday, April 26, 2024
When the Granbury School Board of Trustees meets Monday night (Jan. 24), it will consider a recommendation from the Long-Range Planning Committee for a $394 million bond election.
If the School Board agrees with that recommendation, it could place the question on the ballot in May.
The 83-member Long-Range Planning Committee, comprised of a cross-section of the community, has support from the board of the Granbury Chamber of Commerce. Its' ambitious proposal is designed to prevent what one committee member called a “train wreck.”
The locomotive speeding toward Granbury is accelerating growth. People want to live in the lake community that for three consecutive years has been voted Best Historic Small Town in a contest sponsored by USA Today.
Problem is, Granbury and Hood County aren’t so small anymore.
The city of Granbury has been growing at a rate of 3.83% per year and Hood County’s average growth rate is 2.64%, according to statistics compiled by a demographer commissioned by the Granbury Independent School District (GISD).
Some GISD schools are nearing capacity. Two elementary schools — Acton and Brawner — will be full as soon as the 2023-2024 school year. Over the next decade, seven out of 10 schools will be above capacity, according to projections.
Voting yes to the bond will mean voting for a 20-cent increase to the GISD’s property tax rate. (State law allows for school property taxes to be frozen for the homesteads of those 65 and older.)
However, committee members, as well as school superintendent Dr. Jeremy Glenn, said that the increase may not have to be that much.
At $1.0888 per $100 valuation, GISD’s property tax rate is the second lowest on a list of 29 school districts in the region. If voters approve the increase, the school district will move up a few spaces on that list but will still hold onto its ranking as having one of the area’s lowest property tax rates.
The GISD also ranks among the lowest of area school districts when it comes to outstanding bond principal. That figure currently stands at $93 million.
Four members of the Long-Range Planning Committee who spoke to the Hood County News indicated that voters as well as students will be best served if a bond is passed now, while interest rates are at a 60-year low. They aren’t going to stay that way for long. Three interest rate hikes are predicted during 2022.
There is also unpredictable inflation to consider. By acting now, the committee believes, taxpayers stand to save millions.
4-for-1 PLAN
The Long-Range Planning Committee’s proposal has been dubbed a “4-for-1” plan. It involves building a new, but not a second, high school.
Doing so would enable other school facilities to be repurposed, essentially giving taxpayers a bigger bang for their buck.
Under the plan, the current Granbury High School, Acton Middle School, Granbury Middle School, and Baccus Elementary would be repurposed. All current elementary schools would undergo renovations, including the restructuring of student drop-off and pick-up points.
Bruce Baird, a spokesman for the Long-Range Planning Committee, said that students from the existing two middle schools would be moved to the current GHS campus.
Since that campus is already equipped for the school district’s Career & Technical Education (CTE) program, middle school students would be allowed to enter that program early, taking courses in 13 career clusters that offer 20 industry certification opportunities.
The CTE program would also be offered at the new GHS, which would have capacity for 3,500 students. The school would possibly be built on GISD-owned property near the Hood County YMCA and Acton Middle School on James Road, but no decision has yet been made.
By building one new school — a high school — the district would have excess capacity for the next 10 years and be able to accommodate its fastest-growing demographic: elementary-aged students.
With the repurposing of the two middle schools, the district would have six elementary campuses.
CRUNCHING THE NUMBERS
Financial figures and statistics stated in this article were provided by the Long-Range Planning Committee, the GISD and the school district’s demographer.
When voters approved an $89.5 million bond in 2013 for renovations and safety and security upgrades, the projected 15-cent property tax increase ended up being considerably lower. For the 2014-2015 fiscal year, it was 12 cents per $100 valuation, for 2018-2019, it was 5 cents, and currently it’s 4 cents.
The reason is two-fold, Glenn explained.
One reason is that property values have been increasing every year at an average of about 10%, which yielded “a bigger bond capacity.”
The average new home sale price in the GISD has risen 43% in the last 10 years, an increase of more than $89,500. The average existing home sale price in the district has risen 46% since 2010, an increase of more than $87,800.
The Hood County Appraisal District, with direction from the state, sets those values.
The other reason is that there has been a good deal of growth, which has resulted in more business and residential properties being added to the tax rolls, helping to pay down the debt.
The 15-cent property tax increase that was needed to fund an $89.5 million bond in 2013 would net $300 million today.
“That really speaks volumes to how much our community has grown,” Glenn said.
In the years since the 2010 Census was conducted, the district expanded by 34.6% and the population of those under 18 grew by 28.4%. The number of households increased by 6,475.
The district has 20 actively building subdivisions and 12 future subdivisions, including two in Cresson.
Although there is currently a citywide development ban within the Granbury city limits and its extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ) due to wastewater issues, the embargo does not apply to projects that were already making their way through the city’s permitting process.
Glenn indicated that the School Board’s fiscal management insulated property owners from 2013’s projected 15-cent tax rate hike.
“Rather than keep the tax rate high and continuing to pad the (Interest & Sinking) balance, they passed the savings on to homeowners, thereby reducing the I&S, or the debt rate,” the superintendent stated. “They were able to lower that 15 cents all the way down to four cents. They knocked 11 cents off the I&S side.”
The current I&S tax rate is 14.50 cents. If it is raised to 20 cents, that will increase the I&S tax on a $250,000 home by $500, or by $41.67 monthly.
As for the Management & Operations budget, or the M&O, which funds the district’s day-to-day operations, taxpayers received relief on that front through House Bill 3, which was passed by the Legislature in 2019, Glenn said.
Glenn noted that four additional portable classrooms were added to the campuses of both Acton and Brawner elementary schools this year to accommodate student growth.
Even if the bond passes, he said, “we’re still going to have to have more portables because anything we want to build will take three years, minimum. We won’t be able to survive three years before adding more portables.”
