PRESIDIO — Last Wednesday, around 30 Presidio ISD parents and staff members gathered to discuss a $9.9 million bond for district improvements that will appear on the ballot this Saturday. School board members Perla Natividad, Jaime Sanchez and Brenda Witty moderated the discussion, fielding questions about school finance and the potential projects that could be funded with the bond.
Superintendent Carmen Rubner was also a part of the presentation. Under Texas electioneering law, she is prohibited from making statements for or against the measure, but was able to give background information about the district’s resources. (School board members, on the other hand, have more freedom to publicly advocate for its adoption.)
A bond is one of the few tools that school districts can use to make large-dollar improvements without the limitations ascribed to state and federal funding. “A school bond is like a home mortgage,” Rubner explained. “Almost all school districts in Texas utilize voted bonds to finance new facilities and major renovation projects.”
If approved, this year’s bond will take the place of an 18 cent per $100 of valuation charge on property tax bills from a prior bond passed in 1998 to build the middle school. The package was designed to make it possible for the district to make capital improvements without taking a big bite out of local families’ finances. “The $9.9 million that is being proposed was carefully considered with the taxpayer burden in mind,” Natividad said.
The state still requires ballot language that describes the bond as a “tax increase,” though property owners will experience no change if the bond passes. (If it fails, bills will go down.)
Other school districts in the region have had mixed success with going out for bonds. A $57 million bond for Marfa ISD was shot down by voters in 2022, and in 2018 Alpine ISD voters approved a $22.5 million bond — but only on the district’s third try. “Could we have proposed more? We didn’t want to do that to the taxpayer,” Natividad continued. “The common trend is to request bonds that are really, really high. $9.9 [million] was the most conservative figure that we thought would be pretty comfortable for the community to make an informed decision with.”
Natividad and the other board members explained that the package was designed with the help of the district’s bond attorneys. Priorities for how it would be spent aren’t set in stone, but a list of potential projects was generated by surveying staff members about their needs.
Any money the district receives from the state and federal government comes with lots of stipulations about how that money can be spent. The laws about how bonds can be used are also complex but give the district the ability to address material needs within the district before they become emergencies and require immediate budget transfers. “The money that we generate with local tax doesn’t get us very far,” Natividad said, explaining that the state affords each district a “basic allotment” per student that hasn’t changed since 2019. “We’re trying to keep our budget as conservative as possible.”
To make matters more complicated, the state has also required safety upgrades at a rapid pace, but districts are often left to foot the bill. The district has tried to make the most of the new requirements — for example, making a pricey wall around the elementary school also function as a space to display student art — but it’s difficult to plan ahead for these expenses in the ever-evolving landscape of school security.
While the list of projects pitched by the district is long, a few earned special mention during last Wednesday’s session: renovating the elementary school gym was a top priority for some, with potential safety issues hindering its use as a multipurpose space. Buses were another hot topic, as well as science lab upgrades, facilities for programs like band and welding, and cafeteria space. Finishing the multipurpose building — the facility going up across the street from the high school — was also a priority.
Natividad explained that some of these ideas might sound like luxuries but have trickle down effects to the long-term health of the district, from teacher recruitment and retention to student safety. She gave the example of bleacher replacements at the district’s fields — she’s heard folks from out of town complain about coming to Presidio for home games. “That’s hindering their decision to come over and visit our town,” she said. “We have to be able to attract.”
Local business owner Ariel Lara said he could see the logic in tending to some of these issues right away, particularly when it came to big ticket machines and appliances on their last legs. “If you get new equipment that functions, I think there will also be an energy savings component that will lower your [maintenance and operation] expenses,” he said.
The measure will be up for a vote this Saturday. For more information about the bond — and to see more of the district’s financial docume
nts — please visit presidio-isd.net or visit the district’s official page on Facebook.
Mario Leyva contributed reporting to this story.