Putting a $495 million bond package up to voters in North East Independent School District this November — after going 10 years without a single bond election — was not a spur of the moment decision for Superintendent Sean Maika.
It was a yearlong process, he said, sparked by a 2021 incident in which the district spent $2 million replacing an R-22 chiller at Madison High School. That kind of chiller became obsolete in 2010, and Maika became superintendent at the NEISD in 2019.
“I really started to ask a lot of questions” after the chiller incident, Maika said in August. “How didn’t we know this needed to be done? I don’t like unexpected surprises.”
To understand exactly what the school district facility needs were, NEISD hired government contractor Gordian and put together a steering committee of community members to take inventory of everything the district owns and prioritize what needs fixing or replacing.
The findings of that study, Maika recalled, took him by surprise.
NEISD is the second-largest school district in San Antonio, serving 55,000 students across 75 campuses. The Gordian study found that the district owns 458 buildings and 240 portables, spans over 12 million square feet and operates more buildings than Dairy Queen does in Texas.
With that much real estate, the district could have gone for a bond election years ago, Maika said. But he wasn’t comfortable asking the school board to approve putting a bond proposition on the ballot until he had all the facts.
Proposing a bond couldn’t be about “building fancy new buildings,” he said. “This is about taking care of the facilities that our community has invested in for some time.”
While state law prevents Maika from electioneering since he’s a district employee, he said he’ll be attending dozens of town halls leading up to the November election to “share the facts” with constituents.
Cybersecurity, HVAC take priority
NEISD’s bond package is divided into five separate propositions, each focusing on different “clusters” of campus projects.
- Prop A – General (80.8%)
- Prop B – Technology (10.8%)
- Prop C – Athletics (5.89%)
- Prop D – Stadiums (1.96%)
- Prop E – Natatorium (0.47%)
Prop A includes funding for most of the district’s HVAC renovations and chiller replacements. If voters pass the entire bond package, NEISD would unlock roughly $11.2 million to replace R-22 chillers at more than 30 locations across the district, most of which are school campuses.
Prop A includes funding for projects ranging from library to plumbing facility renovations, new school buses and police vehicles and new fire alarm systems.
Prop A would also pay for updated cybersecurity measures for the district.
Last year, the district experienced more than 9,000 cyberattack attempts an hour between Nov. 11 and Nov. 19. More recently, the district saw nearly 14,000 within two minutes on Aug. 14, Maika added.
“No one thinks about cybersecurity until it’s breached,” Maika said. “We have a good system right now, but just like campus safety, you have to continually evolve.”
Currently, NEISD’s cybersecurity efforts are a combination of in-house technicians and some outsourcing. Maika did not go into more detail out of concern for security.
Will NEISD’s bonds raise property taxes?
State law requires ballot language for any tax rate measure to say it’s a tax increase, even if it has no effect on property tax rates. The NEISD bond measures won’t raise tax rates, according to school district officials.
What is NEISD Prop A?
Here’s exactly what the ballot provision says for Prop A:
The issuance of not to exceed $400,345,000 of North East Independent School District school building bonds for the purposes of designing, constructing, renovating, improving, upgrading, updating, acquiring and equipping school facilities, including District-wide renovations, additions, safety and security improvements, roof and HVAC replacements, and technology infrastructure improvements, and the purchase of new school buses and vehicles, and the levying of a tax sufficient to pay the principal of and interest on the bonds and the cost of any credit agreements.
What is NEISD Prop B?
Here’s exactly what the ballot provision says for Prop B:
The issuant of not to exceed $53,480,000 of North East Independent School District school building bonds for the purposes of acquiring and updating instructional technology equipment and the levying of a tax sufficient to pay the principal of and interest on the bonds and the cost of any credit agreements.
Prop B focuses on technology, and would allocate roughly $53.5 million for things like new laptops for teachers and students at all middle and elementary schools, tech upgrades for newspaper and journalism programs, upgraded computer labs, and new Chromebooks or iPads for all students across the district.
While bond repayment plans usually span decades, the district would pay for Prop B in a much shorter time, five to six years, since technology becomes obsolete faster than other equipment.
What is NEISD Prop C?
Here’s exactly what the ballot provision says for Prop C:
The issuance of not to exceed $29,165,000 of North East Independent School District school building bonds for the purposes of designing, constructing, renovating, improving, upgrading, updating, expanding, acquiring, and equipping athletic facilities in the District, including the athletic facilities at the Blossom Athletic Center (the North East Baseball Complex, the Blossom Tennis Center, the East and West Soccer Fields, the Jimmy Littleton Gymnasium, and a new athletic storage facility), the athletic facilities at the North East Sports Park, and the District’s Softball Complex on Judson Road, and the levying of a tax sufficient to pay the principal of and interest on the bonds and the cost of any credit agreements.
What is NEISD Prop D?
Here’s exactly what the ballot provision says for Prop D:
The issuance of not to exceed $9,685,000 of North East Independent School District school building bonds for the purposes of designing, constructing, renovating, improving, upgrading, updating, acquiring, and equipping sports stadiums in the District, including renovations and improvements to Jerry Comalander Stadium and Heroes Stadium, and the levying of a tax sufficient to pay the principal of and interest on the bonds and the cost of any credit agreements.
What is NEISD Prop E?
Here’s exactly what the ballot provision says for Prop E:
The issuance of not to exceed $2,325,000 of North East Independent School District school building bonds for the purposes of designing, constructing, renovating, improving, upgrading, updating, acquiring, and equipping natatoriums in the District, including renovations and improvements to Josh Davis Natatorium and Walker Natatorium, and the levying of a tax sufficient to pay the principal of and interest on the bonds and the cost of any credit agreements.
10 years without a bond
NEISD is somewhat of an outlier compared to most school districts in the San Antonio area for going more than a decade without a bond election.
The last time the district called for a bond election was in 2015. The $499.5 million measure passed with more than 66% approval. Before that, voters approved NEISD bonds in 2011, 2007 and 2003.
A little south of NEISD, East Central ISD voters recently passed a $309 million bond for the school district to build new schools. Before that, ECISD voters passed a $240 million bond package in 2022.
To the west, Northside ISD last went to voters in 2022, effectively passing a $992 million bond. Before that, NISD voters passed a bond in 2018 and 2014.
At San Antonio ISD, voters passed a $1.3 billion bond in 2020 and a $450 million bond in 2016. Currently, the district is putting together a “Blue Ribbon Task Force,” a group that advises the district on which facilities and campuses need renovations or new equipment.
Further to the east, Schertz-Cibolo-Universal City ISD has a similar community advisory committee currently considering putting a bond proposal to voters in May. The last time the district passed a bond was in 2016 for $137 million to address overcrowding and technology replacements.
Possible obstacles
A potential obstacle to passing the NEISD bond: the school district encompasses some of San Antonio’s most conservative neighborhoods, including City Council districts 9 and 10. Earlier this year, voters in both districts went for the more conservative city council candidates on the ballot during May municipal elections.
Adding to possible challenges, not all of the district’s school board trustees are on board.
Currently, the district is paying off approximately $1 billion in debt from previous bond projects, a figure that concerned trustee Marsha Landry, the lone vote against putting a bond on the November ballot.
Landry, who represents NEISD’s District 7, wondered whether it was prudent to ask voters to maintain what the district owns knowing that enrollment is steadily declining, a trend affecting several school districts in the area.
“We may end up with debt with no resources,” she said before trustees took the vote to green light the bond.
Voters across the state may also have bond fatigue, as school districts rely more and more on bonds and voter-approved tax increases for funding. Several school bonds across Texas failed to pass during November elections last year, including one at East Central ISD.
ECISD was, however, more successful in passing a bond this May after an advisory committee surveyed voters and found they were more likely to vote yes if the the resulting property tax increase was less than 10 cents.
In NEISD’s case, district officials say the bond package would not result in a tax increase for homeowners in the area. Meanwhile, Maika stresses the idea that schools belong to the communities they serve.
“My job,” Maika said, is to share the information with voters and let constituents know what shape the district facilities are in. “[The voters’] job is to decide what it is that they want to do about it.”
