Dickinson ISD’s $120 million bond deserves a good hearing

This editorial is not an endorsement of the bond — that is for another day. Instead, this editorial hopes to illustrate that Dickinson ISD is already experiencing issues related to population growth.

Supporting education with words and rhetoric is easy. Supporting education with dollars and cents is where voters can get less enthusiastic. In May, Dickinson voters will get to answer the latter.

Superintendent Carla Voelkel said the district, which serves 12,350 students, is expected to grow by almost 40 percent, to about 17,000, by the 2032 school year.

Officials said students at Lobit Elementary School are already holding classes in portable buildings, and the district was planning for two more in the next school year.

Officials said the elementary school has 103 students over its designed capacity of 853.

“This is a major red flag,” Voelkel said.

One only needs to drive along I-45 to see the housing growth — and rooftops statistically bring many families with school-age children.

“As we travel Dickinson Independent School District’s 61 square miles, especially west of FM 517, south on Highway 3, and south on I-45, it is easy to see the new development that will result in the increased student enrollment for the next 10 years,” Robert Bragg, a member of the facility task force that recommended the bond package, said.

The bond package proposes $68 million for a 1,400-student capacity education complex for pre-kindergarten through fifth grade; safety and security upgrades, including technology and infrastructure and access control; a new Career and Technical Education facility; and upgrades to the existing career and technical education space at Dickinson High School.

And according to officials, the bond will not increase property taxes. Instead, the district says new rooftops will generate the dollars needed to pay the debt.

Betting on future population growth is always a calculated risk. But this is a risk one district voters could accept by simply driving around their community and looking at growth activity.

The bond election will occur on May 6. Until then, the school district will be hosting meetings to provide information to voters and answer any questions. We encourage those in the taxing district to attend and ask questions.

But as voters prepare to make up their minds, we encourage them to ask hard questions about how the money will be spent, the budget assumptions and to vet the statement that the bond will not increase their property taxes.

If voters decide the last one is too risky, they need to ask whether investing in their community is in the best interest of both their property and community. For example, quality school facilities are a long-proven factor in determining housing growth and values.

And in the case of “if you build it, they will come,” Dickinson ISD officials are making their case that people are already lining up at the gate.

• Leonard Woolsey