Vote No on Leander ISD Bonds this may
The Leander School District recently placed three bond proposals on the May 6, 2023, ballot. The Travis County Republican Party, at its March 21, 2023, Executive Committee meeting, voted unanimously to oppose all three propositions.
Rapidly growing Leander ISD needs infrastructure improvements. But Leander ISD residents including some Travis County Republican Precinct Chairmen have pointed out that not everything being proposed was run through the usual channels of collecting taxpayer and resident feedback.
Under a compressed time frame and often without full information, the LISD’s Citizens’ Facilities Advisory Committee assessed the facility needs of the district and prioritizing the projects -- roughly $600M.
However, the LISD Board of Trustees voted 6-to-1 to put forth to the voters a bond for over $750M, apparently adding in projects from their Long Range Plan. To our knowledge, there has been no community input on the Long Range Plan and, unfortunately, the board opted to bypass the option of community input via survey on these items before pushing ahead with a bond for the May ballot.
Some of the proposed expenditures include:
$37M for conversion of an elementary school in the south part of the district to a Professional Learning Center for staff.
$37M for conversion of an elementary school in the central part of the district to an Early Childhood Center.
$37M for conversion of the LEO and New Hope High School campuses to an Early Childhood Center in the northern part of LISD.
$50M for relocation of LEO and New Hope High School campuses to a modernized central elementary school campus.
$150M for two new elementary schools.
$7M for the design of a new facility for the Early College High School.
According to the LISD official website, here's the breakdown of what voters can expect on the May 6, 2023, ballot:
Prop A: $698.33 million for school facilities, buses and vehicles
Prop B: $50.82 million for technology equipment and infrastructure
Prop C: $13.67 million for renovations to LISD’s two performing arts centers
For voting information as it is made available please see our Your Vote page.
