Grapevine-Colleyville officials call $249 million bond election for May

Grapevine-Colleyville trustees have voted unanimously to place a bond package just shy of $249 million on the May 7 ballot.

The new facilities on the list include $33.6 million to rebuild most of Cannon Elementary School, $32.8 million for indoor practice buildings at Colleyville Heritage and Grapevine high schools and $9.1 million for additions at Grapevine Elementary, Timberline Elementary and Grapevine Middle School.

The rest of the package, voted on Thursday, is composed of $30.9 million in security and safety upgrades like controlled entry and surveillance cameras; $76.4 million for infrastructure improvements that include replacing aging HVAC units, upgrading technology networks, improving disability access and new playgrounds, buses and kitchen equipment; and $62.2 million for classroom enhancements like technology, collaborative spaces and new furniture.

A committee of residents and district employees spent six months studying facility and capital improvement needs, along with long-term district goals outlined in the strategic plan LEAD 2021, to develop the list of items.

It’s almost double the size of the last bond proposal, a $124.5 million package approved by voters in 2011.

“We’re trying to address the needs of aging facilities: 20-, 30- and 40-year-old facilities,” said Superintendent Robin Ryan. “As a Robin Hood district, we get to keep 100 percent of bond dollars in the district.”

Cannon Elementary School, built in 1959, has had serious foundation problems. Officials decided that constructing a new building made better financial sense than having ongoing repairs. The plan is to keep the newer fifth-grade wing and demolish the rest of the building before reconstructing it on site.

Shea Kirkman, co-chair of the bond advisory committee, said the multipurpose practice buildings would serve a wide variety of extracurricular activities. Athletes and the marching band can use the indoor field during inclement weather.

If approved, the bonds would raise the school tax rate by 12.81 cents, from $1.32 per $100 of assessed value to almost $1.45 — still below many neighboring districts, officials said. Keller is at $1.54, Northwest and Birdville are just above $1.45, and Carroll (which is considering bond options for November or 2017) is at $1.359.

For a resident with a home valued at $300,000, the annual increase would be about $384.

In 2014, Keller voters OK’d a $169.5 million bond package and Birdville voters OK’d a $163.2 million package.

The amount of the tax increase in Grapevine-Colleyville is significantly higher than either of those districts. Keller — already at the state cap of 50 cents for bond debt — had no increase in the tax rate but could issue the bonds based on growth. In Birdville, the bond raised tax rate by about 3 cents.

The 2011 Grapevine-Colleyville bond raised the tax rate by about 3 cents.

Kirkman said, “The last bond GCISD had was in a completely different economy and development and construction climate. We factored that in with the goal of reaching every student and improving our facilities using LEAD 2021.”

This story was originally published February 19, 2016 at 3:50 PM with the headline "Grapevine-Colleyville officials call $249 million bond election for May."