The Cana Ballroom was abuzz with more than 250 educators, administrators, local and San Antonio officials and guests as the Greater Boerne Chamber of Commerce hosted the annual Boerne Independent School District State of the District luncheon Thursday.
After all the BISD teachers of the year were recognized, receiving gift bags supplied by Ford of Boerne, BISD Superintendent Thomas Price took to the stage, focusing most of his 40-minute time with the audience on the school district’s upcoming bond election.
“We’re growing big, this is just a quick snapshot of who we are,” Price said. “We are at over 10,000 students now. At the beginning of the year, we celebrated our 10,000th and now we’re at 10,400. From October of last year to October of this year, we grew by 900 students. Now, some of that is students who were homeschooled because of COIVD and are they’re coming back. We’re bringing in about 500 new students or more a year.”
Beyond student growth, Price mentioned the school district now employs roughly 1,600 people, saying about 80 percent of those employees live in the district. This was a point Price said he was very proud of.
“They go to church with you, they pay taxes with you, they are a vital part and they’re proud of that,” Price said. “And that’s great for us because we want them to be part of you and a reflection again of what we do.”
All of this growth led Price to point out that BISD is no longer a small school district, building a need for the $165 million bond election set for the May 7 ballot. In urging the audience not to “get lost in the politics of it all,” Price said three major points apply to every aspect of the bond proposal: Addressing growth by serving students, the bond will benefit every campus and there will be no property tax rate increase.
One major clarification Price deemed important the audience understand is the district is $2.7 million aquatic center proposed under the bond proposal is not a natatorium, pointing out there will be no roof over the new pool. Price went as far as to downplay the new pool as a “hole in the ground with water in it.”
While Price expressed gratitude for the current partnership with the city of Boerne in using the pool at the city park, he said the current arrangement has left students with some challenges. He said there are times when students arrive at the pool at 7 a.m. when it’s 30 degrees outside and have to change in their car and occasionally use the pool when the heater isn’t working.
Price explained the new aquatic center will not just be for the high school students but for all kindergarten through 12th-grade students. He said the district will work to add swimming to its curriculum, noting he’s seen too many stories of children drowning because they didn’t know how to swim.
Another big point of debate over the bond was the lack of a new stadium in the proposal. Price said the district had one piece of land on a neutral site in the district, which sits next to Voss Middle School in Ber gheim. However, Price said it was estimated a new stadium would cost about $22 million, and he said build a flat stadium on the hilled land would raise the cost to roughly $50 million – something that simply wasn’t feasible at this time.
Price addressed another item that seemed to be missing from this year’s bond proposal: A third high school. He said the district couldn’t afford the estimated $120 million it would cost to build a third high school in the district nor the additional $3 million in annual operations costs it would lump on the district.
Additionally, Price said the district still is suffering from a decision made to split the district’s high school population too early in 2008, which he said caused a 5-year teacher salary freeze across the district. He said if the district built a third high school now, there could be 1,100 students at each school when Champion High School can accommodate 2,100 students and Boerne High School can accommodate 1,800.
Price said the district is working on having a design drafted for a third high school, which accounts for 5 percent of the overall cost and reduces the buildout time from three years to two. This will make the process for building another high school in the district’s next bond issuance much more efficient.
In all, the bifurcated bond totals just over $165 million, with $162 million dedicated to safety, growth and infrastructure improvements and $3 million focused on technology upgrades, including non-hardwired devices for students and other technology improvements.
Should the bond proposal garner voter approval in May, the district will spend $32 million building its eighth elementary school, $45.4 million expanding both high schools and Boerne Middle School North and Middle School South, $14.84 million designing a third high school, $28.2 million on general maintenance and preparing the existing stadium to be converted to a JV stadium, $9.2 million on updating hardwired technology, $2.7 million on the aquatics learning center, $5.5 million expanding and renovating the old administrative building and 18-plus Boerne Academy, $5 million on library hubs and four of the district’s elementary schools, $2.5 million on the first phase of an operations center and $17.3 million on planning, management and contingency.
Somewhere in these expenses, Price said about $9.84 million will be used for acquisition of new land for the school district.
In the end, Price said he couldn’t tell the audience how to vote, as state law renders it illegal for any official with the school district to publicly promote or support a bond issuance. But he added he was sure everyone in the audience knew how he wanted them to vote.
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