2023 LOCAL VOTER GUIDE
46-year-old Briargate Elementary and 42-year-old Mission Bend Elementary schools. Briargate will con- solidate with Blue Ridge, and Mission Bend will con- solidate with Mission Glen for the 2023-24 school year, regardless of bond passage, due to low enrollment. Construction would be nished in two years. Funding the bond The district has to call a bond to cover the cost of these types of projects because of how its nancial system operates, Bassett said. Revenue from property tax can be used for the dis- trict’s maintenance and operations expenses, such as utilities, fuel and employee salaries. Revenue from a bond, on the other hand, funds the budget for projects such as construction, renovations and other facility upgrades. State funding cannot be used for new con- struction and renovation, Bassett said. “We must have a bond in order to build buildings, in order to make a di erence in terms of structures,” Whitbeck said. The district’s 2022-23 tax rate is $1.13 per $100 prop- erty valuation. If the bond passes, the district projects the tax rate would increase to $1.14 per $100 property valuation for the 2023-24 tax year. Residents with a $300,000 home would see a $30 increase to their annual tax bill, Bassett said. Rachelle Kanak, executive vice president of mar- keting and operations for the Fort Bend County Economic Development Council, emphasized the importance of having high-quality schools in keeping property values high. “Schools are magnets, and good schools attract,” Kanak said at the March 8 luncheon. “Fort Bend County has attracted businesses and people because of education. They’re a big part of this success story.” Residents will have the chance to decide on this during the bond election, which will be held during the May 6 election. “We have a lot of work to do in Fort Bend ISD. This bond is one piece of that, but more than anything, it’s trying to meet the needs of each and every child,” Whitbeck said at the luncheon.
RALLYING ENROLLMENT
FORT BEND ISD BOND HISTORY
Although the district’s growth stagnated during the pandemic, the district’s enrollment projections show an anticipated 6.25% growth in ve years.
FBISD has passed four bonds in the past 20 years. The May 2023 proposed bond is the largest yet.
ACTUAL
PROJECTED
100K
$1.5B
$1.26B
$1.2B
$992M
90K
84,956
$900M
$484M
79,637
76,735
$428M
$600M
76,122
80K
$299M
$300M
77,545
77,756
0
$0
YEARS
SCHOOL YEARS
children,” Superintendent Whitbeck said. Proposition B would cover nearly $52.5 million for computer upgrades districtwide, and the $22.9 mil- lion Proposition C would fund a new district natato- rium in the southeast portion of the district. FBISD has one natatorium and a practice swimming facility, located in the north and central parts of the district. Fixing aging facilities Addressing its aging facilities is a signi cant goal of FBISD for this bond, Whitbeck said, as the district’s average facility age is 45 years old. The bond’s most nancially signi cant project, a nearly $223 million rebuild of 40-year-old Clements High School, would address these kinds of needs. The school has the worst Facility Condition Index rating—a benchmark used by the district to evaluate a building’s repair needs—of all the district’s facili- ties, according to Carolina Fuzetti, FBISD’s executive director of design and construction. This is primarily due to foundation issues causing cracks in the walls and oors. It also lacks a re sprinkler system, win- dows in classrooms, a cafeteria that ts all students and a voice evacuation system for emergencies.
“It’s a real challenge to go into an old building and upgrade as best you can, and the end result is you have an old building that has been upgraded,” PBK Architects partner Ron Bailey said during a March 22 public tour of the school. The new building would use a structural slab, designed to allow soil to move without the slab crack- ing, Bailey said. It would hold up to 3,000 students, an increase from the current building’s 2,639 design capacity. The $113 million price tag to rehabilitate the existing building is over half of the $223 million cost to rebuild. “This is really when you start evaluating all the components that are wrong, that are failing or not up to code, and compare that cost with a rebuild and make a decision if it is worth continuing to invest and infuse money into this building,” Fuzetti said. The district would build the new building on the athletic elds, relocate students to the new building by 2027, then rebuild the elds where the current building sits. While construction is underway, stu- dents would use Mercer Stadium or other facilities in the district. Over $94.5 million would also be used to rebuild
For more information, visit communityimpact.com .
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SUGAR LAND MISSOURI CITY EDITION • APRIL 2023
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