SINTON, Texas — While of course there's been a big focus on the Presidential race in this upcoming election, keep in mind, the state, county and local races are happening, too. Voters in Sinton decided the fate of Sinton ISD's 2020 Bond Package.
Click here to see how residents voted, with updates throughout the night.
3News spoke with Dr. Chad Jones, superintendent of the Sinton Independent School District, for a breakdown of the district's multi-million dollar 2020 bond package.
You may remember, it was back in February when the Board of Trustees unanimously voted to call for a bond election for May 2. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, voters had the chance to vote on this in the upcoming November 3 general election instead.
The package, totaling $111,060,000 is made up of 2 propositions:
Proposition A: $91,390,000
- Includes the construction of a new high school
- An expansion of the Ag Barn
- Facility improvements and safety upgrades across the district's other campuses
Proposition B: $19,670,000
- Includes construction of new extracurricular and athletic facilities at both the Sinton High School & Smith Middle School
- New tennis courts at the high school & middle school
- A six-lane track at the middle school
"Literally, during show season right now, we're at capacity. So this would expand the Ag Barn. The new high school would include a brand new auditorium, new band hall, new choir room, and the multi-purpose building is being able to be used for multiple programs here at Sinton ISD," Dr. Jones said.
"Within the multi-purpose building, will be a field house, a weight room, but also a 60-yard practice field that football can practice on, the band can march on, all the various programs can use that throughout the year, especially if there’s inclement weather of any kind."
As far as the safety upgrades, Jones said part of the bond would be adding security vestibules at Sinton Elementary, Welder Elementary and the new high school. Smith Middle School already has the recommended safety vestibule in place.
As to how these items came to be, the superintendent says part of the process began with calling for a facility review and facility committee.
"When you look at the campuses for Sinton ISD, Sinton High School was built in 1967, the class sizes do not meet the size recommendations from the Texas Education Agency. There were just a lot of things that came up in the facility review that caused the board to call for us putting together a facility committee, so we put together a facility committee that was made up of over 70 Sinton community members. This facility committee looked at the review, had meetings to discuss what they felt like as a community they wanted to recommend to the board and so it was this facility committee made up of Sinton community members that brought that recommendation to the board for the total bond with the certain projects in totaling a 111,060,000 dollars," Jones explained.
"Obviously the high school having the age that it had and some of the aging and the structural issues made it kind of a primary or largest ticket item on the bond."
According to Jones, if approved, the bond would not raise the tax rate. A key reason for that he said is the new steel mill in town, Steel Dynamics, Inc.
"This process started a year and a half to two years ago when we started discussing with Steel Dynamics the possibility of doing a Chapter 313 agreement. The 313 agreement gives Steel Dynamics a tax abatement on the M&O side, M&O means maintenance and operations, that’s what we run day-to-day business at a school district. However, we received full tax value on the I&S side, and that’s basically our bond debt side," said Jones.
"When Steel Dynamics chose Sinton, what’s going to happen is our certified property value is going to go from around 800 million to approximately 2.5 billion. So, it basically triples our property value by adding them, so what that means to our average tax payer is, we won’t have to raise our tax rate at all."
When you go to vote, however, something you'll notice as you come across the school bond item(s), is a note on the ballot reading that there is a property tax increase associated with the ballot item. See below:
Click here to access a Sample Ballot from the San Patricio County Elections Office.
"New legislation requires on any bond election that adds debt to a district, it requires a statement on the ballot that says this is a property tax increase. What it doesn’t take into account is when you have an industry the size of Steel Dynamics that comes in and they’re going to be paying all the additional tax because they’re so huge and will not negatively affect our tax payers and will not raise our tax rate at all."
Jones said if the bond is passed, it could take 2.5 to 3 years (pending weather, any other major changes) for the new school to open. The school board was recently able to tour the Steel Dynamics facility. He said that at this time, the mill is expected to begin production around June 2021.
"So, that’s when our tax dollars would start to flow in. So if you think from the summer of '21, you go two years out, to the summer of '23, there’s a possibility that new school could open in the '23-'24 school year," said Jones.
As for the key takeaways regarding the 2020 bond, Jones says there are a few:
"We had a facility committee that made this recommendation based on a facility review, that this will be no tax rate based on the fact that Steel Dynamics is coming into town, and that we're getting ready to grow and Sinton is getting ready to change."
This upcoming Monday, Oct. 12 at 6:30 p.m., the district is offering an opportunity for residents to tour the Sinton High School.
To learn more about the Sinton ISD 2020 bond with information/images/video provided by the district, click here.
Early voting begins Oct. 13 - Oct. 30. Election day is Tuesday, Nov. 3.
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