Early voting is now for this. Please get out and vote against this. Tell you neighbors. An $807 MILLION bond. This is crazy.

https://thegoldenhammer.net/the-grass-is-never-greener-conroe-isd-plans-to-gouge-taxpayers-23146160-for-astro-turf-in-crazed-may-4-bond-fumble/

IrishTxAggie said:

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Don't worry. After this fails, they'll just have a special vote at a later time that no one knows about and get it through.

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I feel like that happened here. I didn't know about it until yesterday.

Get ready for it to pass. Fort Bend easily (like 78% for) passed a similar sized bond in November.

Conroe just passed a bond 3-4 years ago. Voted no on this one.

This will pass, and it will pass by a lot.

It was the only thing on my ballot. Literally the only thing. The only people who will vote at all are essentially activists who are VERY ADAMANTLY against it or VERY ADAMANTLY for it. Ninety percent of all employees of CISD employees will probably come out and vote for it because they fit into those adamantly for it.

CISD is the largest employer in Montgomery County with over 7,500 employees. The 2015 bond was in November with lots of other items on the ballot, and it received a total of 25,939 votes. Nearly 70% (68.95% officially) voted for it. Only 8,053 total voters voted against it, and 17,886 voted for it.

For the bond to fail this year in an off-season election, I would expect the "no" vote to need to be at least as much as it was in 2015. There's no way it gets 8,000 votes when it's the only thing on half the people's ballots. Over 90% of the population (and probably over 2/3 of the "voting" population) doesn't even know this election exists.

This will pass in a landslide.

Full disclosure: I am an employee of CISD but was not in 2015. I voted against the one in 2015 and against this one in 2019. I was closer to voting yes in 2015 than I was this year. I'm not opposed to a bond for new schools and most of the other things proposed, but there are things I don't support and would prefer they carve those out first.

The Houston area has enough districts around that some parents athletics shop for districts. Lil Johnny won't get his scholly if the district he plays for doesn't have gold-plated lockers and real artificial turf.

jayelbee said:

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I'm not in Conroe, but $800MM doesn't sound like an absurd bond issue depending on what they're planning to do with it.

What does a new elementary school cost these days? High school? it's not like we're building single room school houses outfitted with 3 civil war era textbooks that is built by the local farmers. That's a handful of new schools in an area that seems to be growing.

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$23 mil for astroturf...no thanks. The interest alone on this to the taxpayer is another $50 mil. Reckless at best IMO

I'll be voting against it. It is not a very scientific sampling, but many people on our neighborhood FB page will also be voting against it.

Just voted against the CYFISD bond yesterday

Broba Fett said:

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Here's how you fix this bull***** Stop forcing it on property taxes and start making parents pay tuition if they want little Johnny and Susie to attend the Taj Mahal for school.

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Gen X parents want their suburban high schools to look like the one in the Breakfast Club, so everyone else gets ripped off to pay for it.

et98 said:

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This will pass, and it will pass by a lot.

It was the only thing on my ballot. Literally the only thing. The only people who will vote at all are essentially activists who are VERY ADAMANTLY against it or VERY ADAMANTLY for it. Ninety percent of all employees of CISD employees will probably come out and vote for it because they fit into those adamantly for it.

CISD is the largest employer in Montgomery County with over 7,500 employees. The 2015 bond was in November with lots of other items on the ballot, and it received a total of 25,939 votes. Nearly 70% (68.95% officially) voted for it. Only 8,053 total voters voted against it, and 17,886 voted for it.

For the bond to fail this year in an off-season election, I would expect the "no" vote to need to be at least as much as it was in 2015. There's no way it gets 8,000 votes when it's the only thing on half the people's ballots. Over 90% of the population (and probably over 2/3 of the "voting" population) doesn't even know this election exists.

This will pass in a landslide.

Full disclosure: I am an employee of CISD but was not in 2015. I voted against the one in 2015 and against this one in 2019. I was closer to voting yes in 2015 than I was this year. I'm not opposed to a bond for new schools and most of the other things proposed, but there are things I don't support and would prefer they carve those out first.

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I am just hoping (with futility I am sure) that the huge push CISD is making with the yard signs and constant "information sessions" (where there is no rebuttal provided/allowed) backfire and raise awareness to enough NO voters to strike it down. CISD barely made a peep for the last bond so hardly anyone knew about it. Same thing when they bumped the local sales tax to fund all the fancy new fire stations that got built. I think 800 people voted on that.

jayelbee said:

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I'm not in Conroe, but $800MM doesn't sound like an absurd bond issue depending on what they're planning to do with it.

What does a new elementary school cost these days? High school? it's not like we're building single room school houses outfitted with 3 civil war era textbooks that is built by the local farmers. That's a handful of new schools in an area that seems to be growing.

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The newest high school in CISD that just opened a year or so ago cost over $70 million. Tomball ISD built one in the late 2000s for $50 million. Newest jr high in our area cost just over $30 million (for a max enrollment of 1500). I would imagine an elementary school would cost about the same.

It's amazing to me how quick parents/taxpayers are to commit hundreds of millions to building new schools just so their kids don't have to drive so far to get to school. I'm in Tomball ISD, zoned to Tomball High, which is at less than 60% enrollment. But Tomball High serves all of the TISD residents living in The Woodlands, and because of its location, it's super inconvenient to get to. So, there is a very loud group of residents/parents demanding TISD build a third high school just for The Woodlands kids because the drive to THS is "unsafe" (think of the children!).

No amount of explaining that it is a waste of resources to build a $50+ million school when the one we have is less than 60% utilized gets through to these people. All they care about is that their kids have the best and shiniest new facilities and they don't have to drive more than 5 min to get to them. Thank goodness TISD seems to be ignoring the demands (for now).

Edit - newest high school in Conroe ISD was originally budgeted for $154 million.

THS isnt that bad of a drive from your area. Those parents are whiny biches.

The Wonderer said:

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THS isnt that bad of a drive from your area. Those parents are whiny biches.

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It's a pain, only because there is no direct route. Huffsmith Rd is awful, and the connection from 2978 to Zion Rd is horribly designed.

But, I won't be making that drive any more than is absolutely necessary - that's what buses are for.

And, you are correct - lots of whining about this. I figured 4 years of inconvenience is the trade off for 6 years (would have been 9 years, if we'd moved here sooner) of having elementary and junior high schools within walking distance. Most residents of the The Woodlands zoned to CISD don't have that.

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Get ready for it to pass. Fort Bend easily (like 78% for) passed a similar sized bond in November.

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Yeah, I felt like my wife and I were the only ones who voted against this...and we have two young kids.

I don't live out that way, but I hear projections show Conroe gaining a bunch of families with school-age children over the next few years.

It may be too late for some areas, but people are waking up. Klein killed a bond issue last year and sent thr school board scrambling to come up with a new budget.

jayelbee said:

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I'm not in Conroe, but $800MM doesn't sound like an absurd bond issue depending on what they're planning to do with it.

What does a new elementary school cost these days? High school? it's not like we're building single room school houses outfitted with 3 civil war era textbooks that is built by the local farmers. That's a handful of new schools in an area that seems to be growing.

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Elementary Schools are around 20-25mm. full blown HS with all the extras is probably pushing 250mm. this in SBISD in west houston.

- Three new elementaries and a new junior high for $193 million
- Renos to 6 high schools and a junior high for $270 million

A fun one...

- Safety and Security (2020-2023) $25 million

...no details whatsoever on whatever the hell that is for...

- Another $63 million for gym renos at a few schools

And on and on and on.

Not saying I support these huge bonds but schools cost a lot of money to build. Also renovations cost a bunch of cash. Elementary Schools are 20 to 30 million, Middle Schools are usually 30 to 60, and high schools can be 75 up to 200 depending on what the district needs. Klein is doing some MEP work this summer in a handful of schools. Just the water heaters, circ pumps, and a few other items cost a couple hundred grand and that doesn't include labor and piping material. It costs a lot to maintain these schools.

Humble just had a elementary school out for bid that came in 10 million dollars over budget. The went way overboard on architectural items to make the school look good. They had to go back and make a bunch of design changes to get it back in budget. Architects and design engineers are part of the reason these schools cost too much. The days of a square or rectangular building with classrooms inside are over. They want them to look appealing from the outside.

Robin Hood also forces districts to run certain qualifying expenditures through debt. In SBISD, only about 78% of their $1b issue is going into fixed PP&E.