Keller ISD’s board of trustees discussed a possible bond to pay for facility improvements over the next 10 years at a district workshop April 8.

What’s happening?

The district hired RWB Consulting Engineers to perform a mechanical, electrical and plumbing audit for each campus in order to create a catalogue of facility needs and understand the priority for each need, Keller ISD Deputy Superintendent John Allison said. This has been ongoing for the past two years.

“The one component about the bond is [that] 100% of the tax dollars that the community provides stays in Keller,” he said. “The state doesn’t get a penny of it. It’s the one piece of tax for schools that is 100% local, but … it can’t be used for [employee] salaries.”

The facility needs were categorized as priorities 1-6, which are based on when the task needs to be completed within the next 20 years. Priorities 1-3 will be the focus for the upcoming potential bond, Allison said.

The first priorities includes maintenance that needs to occur in the next two years, the second priority includes maintenance that must get done in the next three to five years, and the third includes maintenance needs for the next six to 10 years, according to a district presentation.

Priorities 4-6 will be projects 10-20 years down the road, the presentation states.

Diving deeper

If the district did all the projects currently identified as priorities 1-3, then it will cost $1.1 billion, Allison said.

Since many of the campuses were built around the same time, they are reaching the end of their life simultaneously, he said.

For elementary schools and early learning centers, 66.5% of the facility needs were categorized as the first three priorities. For intermediate schools, 63.4% were categorized as priorities 1-3.

“There’s going to be some tough decisions that we’re going to make on how we scale that down,” Allison said. “I want to point out that any school closures [are] included in that number, so that number would come down as we continue to refine [that plan].”

If the board of trustees decide to close down schools like Parkwood Hill Intermediate School, which has significant mechanical, electrical and plumbing needs, then that school won’t be a high priority, Allison said.

“In order to plan for a bond, we have to know what assets we have and what we’re going to invest in,” Superintendent Cory Wilson said. “That’s part of the timing of all of this.”

District staff plans to bring the bond proposal to the board of trustees in July, Wilson said. If the board approves the bond proposal, then the bond would go on the ballot for the November general election.

Also of note

Keller ISD’s board of trustees voted 5-1 to take no action to replace the Place 6 seat at the April 8 board meeting, with trustee Chris Coker in opposition.

This came after the board of trustees interviewed candidates for the seat during its executive session.

“I’m of the strong opinion that we need a full board to do the business of the district,” Coker said. “I don’t think it would be wise to walk into situations where we’re talking about school closures and various other important topics that [are] going on [and] walking into those situations with possibly 3-3 votes. That could cause the district to move into a stagnant stalemate.”

The Place 6 seat was vacated by Charles Randklev in December so he could run for the Place 6 position on Keller City Council, Community Impact previously reported.