And no wonder Klein ISD sent home a flyer with elementary school kids titled, “The Truth about the Bond.”
The district barely eked out a victory, by a margin of only 312 votes. That’s much closer than I ever expected it to be.
A look at the results by elementary school shows that, generally speaking, schools that feed into Klein High voted for the bond, and schools that feed into the other high schools (Klein Forest, Klein Collins, and Klein Oak) voted against the bond. What this shows is a divided district — a district that doesn’t agree that Klein High is the be all and end all, sucking up precious financial resources which other parts of the district desperately need.
One of the complaints Superintendent Dr. Jim Cain made in the flyer sent home with students is that opponents have wrongly suggested planning is already underway for a 2012 bond. He says, “The district has not planned the next bond, whether for 2012 or any other time.” Except that Klein ISD’s Chief Financial Officer Thomas Petrek sent the following email to a Klein For All Kids member:
Based on PASA’s growth projections, we will need an estimated authorization of approximately $500M – $550M in 2012 or 2013. The debt service rate would peak at the 50 cent limit in 2017-18 and then proceed to decrease from there.
It was based on projections that we will build four elementaries at a cost of approx. $100M, one intermediate at $45M, one high school at $175M, three pre-k centers at $35M, $45M in short technology, facility assessments/renovations district-wide at $70M, stadium at $50M, all other at $30M.
Four new elementaries, one middle school and one new high school will need to be built — those are the projects that opponents of the 2008 bond wanted to see funded with the 2008 bond.
You know, sometimes these types of decisions have consequences.
