Fast growth fueling Wylie ISD's $269M bond requests

Two-thousand. If you’re looking for a sign of Abilene growth, that number is all you need.

It’s the amount of students Wylie Independent School District is expecting to add within the next decade. But 2,000 leads to another number - $269 million.

That is the cost anticipated by Wylie ISD to ready itself for those 2,000 students. It is also the tallied amount of the district’s three upcoming propositions appearing on the Nov. 7 ballot.

Wylie boom

Why the big ask? It’s simple, people continue moving into south Abilene. Superintendent Joey Light explained the impact of that population growth and what the district’s Proposition A, the largest bond at $234 million, would address.

“Right now, we're already full at the high school, we're beyond capacity,” he said. “So, we would be adding 63 classrooms with an emphasis on career and technology education.”

A new Ag building would be part of that mix. There would also be an expansion to Wylie East Intermediate School, which is Phase 2 of that project, and an additional new elementary school.

More: Wylie ISD's 2023 Bonds All three propositions will appear on the Nov. 7 ballot for residents in the Wylie Independent School District

If you’re thinking they just finished building a new elementary school, you’re right. Wylie East Elementary opened two years ago, it’s so new the city of Abilene is still tweaking Maple Street which fronts the campus.

“If you've been out, you see a bunch of new housing developments, whether it's down Buffalo Gap Road or in the Potosi area, we've got new apartments coming into the district,” Light said.

Where are all these people coming from? Pretty much everywhere, Light answers.

“We've got them coming from different western states, and some from the northeast, but then we are also seeing growth from Abilene because (here) they have more options for new housing, where most of Abilene is built-out,” he said.

It’s not that there isn’t growth in Abilene, he added. But the momentum in recent years has clearly been to the south and the upcoming bonds and projected student populations are a reflection of that trend.

“It is impacting every grade level,” he said. “I was looking at our grade level distribution, and in nearly every grade level, we have risen to about 400 students.”

And where were they in 2018?

“Over a five-year period, I think we've picked up about 1,000 kids.”

Fan services

Proposition B at $29 million would fund a major expansion at the north end of the football stadium. Currently, that building holds restrooms, concessions, and the locker rooms for both teams, a grouping that Light says always has the potential for mischief and headaches.

“I don't know if you've been down there during halftime but it's not good. We've got a lot of issues with commingling of the athletes and the referees and the fans and people going to the concessions and restrooms,” he said. “We're going to separate all that traffic.”

More: Where to vote Polling locations and early voting schedules

Home-side fans would have their own concessions and restrooms, as would the visitors. The building will have a second floor added which will include an event center as well.

“So that kind of separates those folks from the athletes and the officials and the coaches,” Light added.

Proposition C, coming in at $6 million, would fund a device refresh for teachers and students.

“Due to the online nature of the testing environment that the state has pushed everything to, more and more of our resources are online,” Light said. “We’ve got to have more access for our kids, both from the device standpoint and the infrastructure.”

Dovetailing into that is Prop. A which will also provide more bandwidth, WiFi access, computer servers and the like.

Who pays, and how

As for paying for the three propositions, Light said they are anticipating assistance from the passage of Texas State Proposition 4, which will increase the Homestead Exemption from $40,000 to $100,000 and appears on the same ballot as Wylie ISD’s propositions. Based on the performance of past homestead exemptions, the assumption is it will likely pass simply because most voters are typically in favor of lowering their property taxes.

“So, in other words, if your house is valued at $200,000, you'd subtract $100,000 off of that, and now you're paying taxes on $100,000,” he explained. “So, it's really a big boon for our homeowners.”

More: FAQs from Wylie ISD Bond history of the district, answers on growth and taxes

How will that affect Wylie ISD voters if everything passes?

“We're in a really unique position as far as taxes are concerned, because of legislation,” Light said. “An average household in Wylie last year would have paid $2,900 in taxes. This year, they're going pay about $2,000 in taxes. And if everything passes, it'd be about $2,600 in taxes.”

Next decade: Same song, same dance?

Unknown in all of this is what the future will hold a decade from now when Wylie voters could be facing a similar choice. Eight or 10 years from now with no change in growth, will it be time to consider a second Wylie ISD high school?

“You know, you're really looking into the crystal ball when you ask demographers to project that far out in advance, and they'll tell you they feel confident up to about five years,” Light said. “But after that it really gets fuzzy, because economic factors can change.

“The question did come up this time, it was bandied about,” he added. “It'll be really dependent on what the community wants, if there's a feel they want to have another high school, then they will do that.”

Early voting begins Oct. 23.

More: Sample Ballot How the measures will appear at the polls for Wylie voters.

This article originally appeared on Abilene Reporter-News: Anticipating 2,000 more students, Wylie ask for $269M from voters.