Please sign our Petition to:

1) Demand that the Dripping Springs ISD School Board choose the path of fiscal responsibility and prudence

DSISD's latest demographic projections indicate additional high school facilities will be needed by the 2024-25 school year (and the current high school cannot be expanded further), but using the current Dripping Springs Middle School (DSISD's former high school) as a 9th Grade Center/Academy would postpone the need for a $150+ million second high school for the better part of a decade (and is the biggest immediate cost-savings opportunity that we have identified for DSISD's future facility needs), and
The wasteful and misguided May 2018 Bond's combined project costs for the new Walnut Springs Elementary construction and Dripping Springs Middle School renovations total $38.8 million, while it cost just $55.7 million to build the new combined Sycamore Springs Elementary and Middle School for the May 2014 Bond, just four years earlier, so it appears to be more efficient and effective to build anew rather than putting lipstick on a pig;

2) Demand that the School Board choose a path that will actually provide equitable facilities for all students and across all schools

3) Demand that the School Board develop a coherent and affordable long-term facilities plan for our community and school district's growing populations

DSISD's October 2017 demographic projections for the May 2018 Bond and its new Long-Term Facilities Plan, "Path 2" (that also was projected by former Superintendent Gearing to cost taxpayers an extra $53 million across the May 2018 and next, likely May 2021, bond over previous Path 1 Plan) looked ahead to just seven (7) years, to 2025, for student enrollment and school facilities needs,
But DSISD's May 2019 Demographics Analysis looked to the long-term, to complete district build-out, and revealed that DSISD has built just one-third of needed schools if holding to the school student capacities in the Path 2 long-term school facilities plan, and that the 2018 Bond's version of the Path 2 plan under-estimated the number of needed schools by 30-50% across the elementary, middle, and high school levels, and
DSISD's March 2020 Budget Workshop presentation showed the District's hand, that the District's Bond Capacity (amount of new debt they can issue) under the current I&S (Bond) Tax Rate of 35 cents per $100 valuation is projected to be just $42 million for a May 2021 election or just $87 million for a May 2022 election, both of which are far short of the $400 million that Superintendent Gearing previously projected would be needed for the District's May 2021 Bond (a $400 million bond would require a 57% I&S Tax Rate Increase to 55 cents per $100 valuation in May 2022, and that 57% increase would be further compounded/increased by any increases in taxpayers' appraised property values), which means that (unless raising the tax rate) then DSISD could really only afford to build an additional elementary school and expand Sycamore Springs Middle School for a 2021 bond election OR build a combined elementary and middle school campus (likely at Headwaters) and expand SSMS for a May 2022 bond election,
In fact, DSISD's debt capacity for future bonds is so low that DSISD administrators are encouraging the School Board to increase the I&S (Bond) Tax Rate this year, and without voter approval, and to use the mandatory M&O (costs of paying staff and actually running schools) Tax Rate Compression, paid for by the 2019 Texas Legislature's House Bill 3 that increased the State's education funding by $11.6 billion, to offset the I&S (Bond) Tax Rate Increase, meaning DSISD taxpayers may not see the full effect of the Legislature's intended tax cuts,
Quite simply, DSISD's fiscal mismanagement means that I&S tax rate increases are inevitably coming should future bond propositions pass, and our DSISD I&S tax bills will be compounded by both combined tax rate increases and CAD appraised value increases,
So any and all opportunities for DSISD's bond and facilities cost-savings must be proactively explored immediately and an affordable long-term oriented facilities plan must also be established, as doing otherwise will only increase the likelihood that the already financially-strained voters of our community will reject future bond propositions,
And finally, DSISD officials must not forget that the 2014 Bond was only approved by 58% of voters, and the 2018 Bond only arguably approved, after DSISD spent nearly a half million of our community's hard-earned tax dollars on high-priced and big-law San Antonio lawyers, by just 51% of the counted vote.

Please sign our Petition below to help accomplish these objectives!

Contribute

Your financial support is critical for us to continue our fight for greater transparency, increased accountability, and more responsible stewardship of our tax dollars by our school board! Please make a secure contribution, in any amount, today!

Your financial support is critical for us to continue our fight for greater transparency, increased accountability, and more responsible stewardship of our tax dollars by our school board!

Please make a secure contribution, in any amount, today!