The Dallas ISD school board is expected to vote Thursday on a proposed $6.2 billion bond issue.
If approved, the proposal would go before voters on May 2. The proposal is the larger of two packages the board has considered over the past few months. It would carry a tax increase of about $33.48 per year on a $500,000 home, the average home value in the district.
The bond package comes in four parts. The construction and renovation portion of the proposal totals $6 billion. The district would use that money to build 26 new schools to replace existing campuses and renovate other schools to bring classroom space more in line with the needs of the programs that use those spaces. It would also allow the district to add permanent classroom space to replace its 400 existing portable classrooms.
The other three propositions cover smaller-dollar priorities, including $144.7 million for handheld student devices, $26.25 million for swimming pool renovations and $143.3 million for debt refinancing that district officials say would save the district $10 million.
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The smaller proposal the board considered totaled $4.9 billion, and would have kept tax rates unchanged. Under that plan, the district would only have been able to build 24 new schools instead of 26 and would only have been able to make repairs to deteriorating classrooms rather than modernizing them.
The plan also would have left at least some of the district’s portable classrooms in place, and wouldn’t have included swimming pool renovations.
The board is scheduled to discuss the bond proposal during a called meeting at 6 p.m. Thursday at the Turney W. Leonard Governance and Training Center, 5151 Samuell Blvd., Dallas.
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