San Marcos - Buda - Kyle Edition | March 2023

HISTORICAL support

INCREASING enrollment

An enrollment assessment found Hays CISD has the second-highest positive enrollment changes in the Austin metro with continued growth expected in the next decade.

Parents and community members have shown support for Hays CISD district bonds with seven out of nine fully approved bonds since 2001. The only bond that failed outright was in 2003.

Hays CISD Enrollment

Projections

Bond total approved Bond total denied

2001 2003 2004 2006 2008 2014 2017 2021 2022

$89.51M

40,000 35,000 30,000 25,000 20,000 15,000 10,000 5,000 0

$104.45M

Hays CISD is expected to reach 39,184 enrolled students by the 2031-32 school year, a 75.68% increase from October 2022.

$86.92M

$46.30M

$86.7M

$59.1M

$250M

$191.59M $46.87M

$115.65M

2001-02 2006-07 2011-12 2016-17 2021-22 2026-27 2031-32

SOURCES: HAYS CISD, POPULATION AND SURVEY ANALYSTS/COMMUNITY IMPACT

April 6: Last day to register to vote April 24: First day of early voting April 25: Last day to apply for ballot by mail May 2: Last day of early voting May 6: Election day KNOW BEFORE YOU GO Before hitting the polls this May, here are some key dates to keep in mind.

“We want people to understand the ‘why’ behind this [bond]. We’re not just trying to spend money to spend money. We want to make sure we have quality facilities and a great place to educate our kids,” Wright said. Aiming for 100% Hays The 100% Hays Initiative is a dis- trictwide initiative that aims to have every student involved in some form of extracurricular activity. Proposi- tion B in particular lends itself to that initiative, Wright said. Proposition B seeks $102.85 mil- lion for fine arts, athletics, and career and technical education, and it also includes a last-minute addition that increased the bond total by $5 million and brought the final vote to call the bond 6-1. Trustee Esperanza Orosco was the dissenting vote. “We did talk at our previous meet- ing, potentially switching out the multipurpose pavilions for the weight rooms [at all three high schools], and ultimately decided that we wouldn’t do that,” board President Vanessa Petrea said. “But, if we can’t do for all, we need to do what we can, and the Hays High School weight room is in dire need of attention.”

While the Hays High School weight room is deemed safe, training condi- tions are not ideal as students regu- larly need to carry equipment outside to be able to lift with the appropriate amount of students spotting and sup- porting another while lifting, Athletic Director Lance Moffett said. Money from the Dahlstrom Mid- dle School parking lot and drive loop improvement project in Proposition A was redacted, and an additional $5 million was added to Proposition B to fund the new weight room. “I cannot support this bond how it is broken up. I don’t believe we should have done the weight room at the last minute without some more thought,” Orosco said at the Feb. 13 meeting. “However, once it does pass, and it will pass 6-1, I will sup- port the body corporate.” Other items within Proposition B include musical instruments to expand all high school orchestra pro- grams, artificial turf installation at every high school for baseball and softball, and more than 16,000 square feet of additional space for extracur- ricular activities. “A lot of the projects are fine arts, athletics and CTE. Those are the things

that keep kids excited about school,” Petrea said. “We want them to come to school and not be told they can’t take a CTE class because there’s no space, and that’s what’s happening.” Petrea added overall participation in fine arts and athletics is at around 80%. Additionally, Proposition D would fund three 84,000-square-foot pavil- ions that would also add more space to be utilized by students. Financing the future The 2023 bond comes on the heels of the 2022 bond, also tack- ling growth, with a $252 million dif- ference in price tag, which may be daunting for the district and com- munity members. With the projects and propositions finalized, the dis- trict is now moving into the educa- tional and informational portion of the bond. “It’s going to take education because, coming out of the pan- demic, prices have doubled,” Wright said. “I would venture to say that these projects we could cut in half if we were prepandemic.” In Texas, there was an approxi- mate 15.62% increase in the consumer price index from January 2020 to

SOURCE: HAYS COUNTY/COMMUNITY IMPACT

January 2023, according to the Texas comptroller and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The CPI measures inflation by tracking the changes in costs over a period of time on goods and services, such as food, housing, transportation and more. “Through education, people will understand that we aren’t having more asks than we usually do; it’s just that the pricing has significantly increased due to that inflation,” Wright said. “I think we’re putting a package in front of the voters that is not only neces- sary, but will be extremely beneficial for our community.”

FREE Checking And Unlimited Cash Back A+FCU Members Enjoy

Membership required. Insured by NCUA. All checking accounts screened through ChexSystems. Conditions and restrictions apply. Subject to change without notice. Scan the QR code or visit aplusfcu.org/rewards to get started.

aplusfcu.org

SAN MARCOS - BUDA - KYLE EDITION • MARCH 2023