Dear SMCISD Community, I am writing to express my support for the SMCISD May bond election. I believe that this bond is essential to the future of our school district and the community as a whole.
On the ballot, voters will be presented with several propositions and I would urge you to vote yes to all four. Proposition A is concerned with “recapture” and we must pass this proposition to keep all of the area we currently hold for property tax revenue. If we do not collect this the state will claim and never return to us a portion of our taxable properties. This has occurred because of our rising property values disproportionate to our school district’s attendance growth. This is not the fault of the school district but we must protect the tax base that supports the educational resources for our children in SMCISD.
Proposition B will provide funding for the construction of a replacement campus for Mendez Elementary, renovations to other existing schools, and the purchase of new school buses, among other things. The renovations to existing schools will address critical safety and security issues, new campus entry at Hernandez Elementary, a functional parent pickup lane at Bonham School that will move the line of cars during pickup off of Hwy 123. The bond will also resource fine arts spaces at our middle schools and high school campuses for growing programs like Mariachi and band. When we pass this bond we will also be adding more useable classroom space to the high school campus, adding life to existing AC units across the district and making preparations for future growth in our school district. This is the cost of having and maintaining a school district with 8500 students.
