School bond too important to ignore

The big topic on my mind and in my conversations is Texas public education. Yes, I’m paying attention to the current Texas House of Representatives public education committee, following along with how HB2 will affect our school district.
I’m making calls and sending emails to our representative, Stan Gerdes, asking questions, voicing concern, and asking (begging) for a Town Hall (and still hearing a ‘no’ at this time).
In Lockhart, we are preparing to vote for an upcoming school bond. There will be a special uniform election held in May for this school bond. Were you aware of this? Let me outline some facts about this important election and encourage you to research for yourself to learn everything you can before showing up to the polls in May. 
Let’s back up for one minute and go back in time to 2019 when our school district called for a bond that would have prevented the need for this May 2025 bond. There was a special election called for a school bond then that would have allotted money for the construction of an intermediate school that would have provided for the children currently occupying our one middle school.
Instead of this bond passing, the voters in Lockhart narrowly decided that they would prefer to use our Maintenance & Operation’s budget to install portable buildings — taking money away from our school staff and operational costs. 
Since the bond in 2019 didn’t pass, our district was forced to install many portable buildings to accommodate for the increase in students and use the current middle school in ways it wasn’t designed to be used. Now, years later, prices on everything have risen, and our middle school is at capacity, quickly approaching over-capacity once again. One thing I’ve learned about a school being “at capacity” is that this means almost every free space in the school is being utilized at any given time during school days. It is very crowded. 
Portables are a cost to tax payers and they put our children’s safety at risk. Since 2019, Lockhart ISD has spent $1,954,112 of taxpayer money from the district’s Maintenance & Operations budget on portable buildings to support the rapid increase in student population. 
In 2019-2020, the cost of a portable was $300,728. By 2021-2022, the cost had risen to $488,163. With inflation, the cost to purchase and construct more portables in LISD is projected to rise. 
Portables limit how much Lockhart ISD can invest in student services, staff pay and campus upkeep. Portables are not a long-term solution. Currently, 24 classrooms are housed in 16 portable buildings across the school district. Portables are not connected to the main campus security system, may not be fenced-in, and may be easily accessed by individuals nearby the campus.
Additionally, students and staff may be exposed to bad weather and/or seen by individuals outside the campus as they trek from the main building to their portable building.
In Lockhart, there are over 20,000 homes currently being built. Even thousands more are being planned. Most of these homes will come with new residents and their children. Our schools in Lockhart are already at capacity. And the “growth” isn’t even fully realized. 
Now to this bond. The Lockhart ISD School Board has approved the call for this bond. Currently Lockhart has one of the lowest debt-per-student ratio compared to neighboring school districts.
Lockhart enjoys one of the lowest tax rates for schools as well. Our district works to ensure they are very responsible with your tax dollars, even winning awards for their brilliant budget work. 
This bond asks for $92 million to build a new middle school behind Wal-Mart, off Seawillow Road. Now, if that sounds like a lot of money to build a campus, consider that neighboring Hays County just passed a bond to build an elementary school for more than this amount. The bond also asks for $1.5 million for future land purchases so our district can gain land before prices jump even further. This is good planning. The bond will not raise our tax rate. The land being utilized for the construction of this middle school has been donated. 
If this bond does not pass, our district will be forced to make cuts and Lockhart ISD children will bear the consequences for that. Now, you may ask, “I don’t have small children, why should I care?” I wonder if you can take a moment to notice all the children in your neighborhood. Do they use the roads that we all pay for? Will they not one day serve your Dairy Queen order? Are children not the future adults? Future homeowners? Future voters? They are. Children are not only the future, but they are the now. They are here. They exist. And they are the future voters that are at this moment relying on you to speak on their behalf. Do you have their best interest in mind? Do you care about them? Did grownups care for you when you were their age? 
Please remember, a school bond is very similar to a mortgage. When a bond is passed, that money does not go into the Maintenance and Operations (M&O) budget. It goes only towards the construction and land purchases for the proposed project, the Interest & Sinking (I&S) Fund. Again, this bond will not raise our tax rate. That rate will stay the same and as more residents move in and contribute to our tax collection, that rate could even go down in the next few years as we are able to pay our debt quicker. 
Although you may not have children approaching middle school, like I do, this does impact you because it impacts the children around you. Please bear that weight of responsibility to our youth. Please register to vote by April 4. Please show up for our children — our community — and vote in favor of this bond. Let’s not leave our community’s children’s future at the whims of this election, but be prepared to go stand up for their education. This bond is not guaranteed to pass. We MUST show up to vote for this. Set a reminder in your phone now. Text friends to ensure they remember to show up. This bond is too important to just sit by the wayside and hope for it to pass. It requires us showing up. Because children are not just the future, they are the now.
Taylor Burge
Lockhart