It was touted as a “Listening Tour,” but it felt like different groups delivering their own messages. Richardson ISD staff came to Lake Highlands High School last night to speak about Bond 2016 and the $417 million in spending items they’ve proposed for it. Some, like 24 new classrooms for LHHS and renovations of outdated schools, are desperately needed. Others, like technology for classrooms, renovations for libraries, and career & technology education, are enrichment our children deserve. A few, such as multipurpose training facilities, are “wish list” items to make ours a “destination district.”

Many in the crowd wanted to be heard, and they tended to be in two camps: the elementary parents who want something done about growth and the parents in support of the multipurpose training facility. The elementary parents are in a hurry: they want a decision made on whether or not to build a school or add classrooms to schools in time to add those items to the bond. The athletic parents are nervous: they’re worried the facility’s $80 million price tag spells doom for a project with genuine merit.

Sign up for our newsletter!

* indicates required

Here’s my recap.

RISD Board President Kim Caston welcomed attendees with an impassioned plea for support of the bond.

“It is our goal that our students compete and win in the classroom, on the performance stage and on the playing field,” she said. “Our board has been very thoughtful and intentional in creating components of this bond.”

Tony Harkleroad, Deputy Superintendent for Finance and Support Services, delivered the nuts-and-bolts, and pre-emptively answered questions like, “why don’t we see more expenditures for English instruction?” (The bond pays for capital items, and there just aren’t many of those in English and other classrooms.) RISD’s conservatism has led to strong credit ratings and low cost debt. We can spend $235 million without a tax increase (we had no increase with the 2011 bond), and proposals in this bond total $417 million. Funding the entire package will generate a property tax bump of less than 10 cents, or about $200 annually on the average RISD home.

Dr. Jeannie Stone, Deputy Superintendent of Instruction, promoted the enrichment expenditures. (1) “Technology affects 100% of students in every classroom”: $23.4 million. (2) “Libraries are our largest classrooms on most campuses”: $23.3 million. (3) “Our goal is that every student would graduate with at least 3 hours of college credit or a license or certification to help them earn a living wage, and participants who complete 3 years in JROTC and enter military service can advance automatically.” CATE (Career and Technology Education) and JROTC (Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps): $9.9 million. (4) Participation of many students (including 17 varsity sports, band, cheer, drill team, country & western dance, PE), Gmax rating to prevent concussion, comfort and safety in extreme heat and other weather, use for community events, Multipurpose Training Facility (one for each high school): $81.5 million.

“My concern is less about what’s in the bond and more about what’s not in it,” said Richard Duge, who spoke for many parents demanding to see a new school (or additions to existing schools) added to the bond now instead of waiting to address capacity from capital projects funds. He shared his survey results about school overcrowding and asked, “after you build the RISD Operations Center and the Non-Traditional High School, how much will be left to build an elementary school in LH?”

Harkleroad road said the money will be there, with $6 million in the capital projects fund (and more likely to come in), $8 million in the fund balance and $18 million in the permanent school balance.

“Or a school could be added to the bond,” he said. The cost? “About $24 million plus land.”

RISD staff will wait for the Templeton Demographics results to come out in January before making a decision on whether – and how – to increase capacity at LH elementary schools, he said.

That waiting, and the reliance on Templeton, has been a point of contention. LH parents, particularly those at White Rock Elementary, say the unrelenting growth at their school – and the number of preschoolers in the pipeline – are indication enough of sustained growth.  Harkleroad, though he admitted that Templeton “missed the mark” at WRE, said “RISD’s experience, overall, with Templeton has been good.” The question, Harkleroad, asked, is will that growth be sustained?

Former Dallas City Councilman Alan Walne said the answer is clear.

“We have employment like we haven’t seen in decades. We are inside LBJ. We just had a new announcement of apartments at the Town Center. This will continue. When you first saw sustained growth 18 years ago, you built the Freshman Center. Then Forest Lane, then Audelia Creek, then Thurgood Marshall, etc. and we’ve continued since then. What does sustained growth mean if that’s not sustained growth?”

“I don’t think anyone ever anticipated that you would have $60 million to spend on capital projects [without a bond], and I think it was a terrible mistake that you took the $12.5 million [for a Non-Traditional High School] out of the bond,” continued Walne. “We have a needs inventory. I respectfully ask that you put that back in. You pulled that one out without letting the citizens have a voice. It serves a few hundred. We have a long list of needs that serve students in the entire district. I think you should add it back in and let the voters decide. I think your process is terribly flawed.”

“The sustained growth is there, that’s why we’ve added on,” said Harkleroad. “But remember, we had resistance to adding onto schools. And, regarding the Non-Traditional High School, we pulled that out of the bond because we need it now. It was serving 65 students and we have hundreds of kids who need that program. We have a duty to those kids, and I don’t regret that decision.”

One Northlake mom expressed frustration – hurt, really –that many homeowner parents in her neighborhood abandon ship by asking for transfers. Most fellow parents at her school “don’t look like” the parents who showed up for the bond discussion, she said delicately. She asked the district to enforce students going to neighborhood schools.

Jeri Johnston, whose son played football at Brown University in the Ivy League, was one of many who wanted to express support for the multipurpose training facility. Addressing overcrowding is needed in athletics facilities, as well, she said, and too many students are trying to use too few spaces and pieces of equipment. “Colleges want to know what you did in high school – sports, band, cheerleading, dance, leadership,” she said. “There is value in these things.”

Others weren’t so sure, like the woman who moved here from Highland Park. She said HP’s indoor facility, built in 2010, cost only $5 million and was privately funded, at least in part. (The RISD facilities will be masonry construction due to deed restrictions and will be larger to house weight rooms and coaches’ offices and to allow band practice on an 80-yard field.)

You can learn more about the 2016 Bond on the RISD website here.

“What we heard tonight was a discussion about what matters to people more than anything else: their children and their money,” said Caston in closing. “The three things I heard loud and clear were the importance of enrollment growth, the necessity of having a strategic plan and the need to make this a destination district. We will do the right things for all kids.”