Questions

The KISD Board of Trustees directed Dr. Reyenga to convene a Facilities Advisory Committee to take a comprehensive look at existing facilities and make recommendations to the Board. An open invitation to join the committee was advertised, and the committee began meeting during the Fall Semester of 2024. After reviewing a comprehensive Facilities Study, school finance, KISD’s Bond Capacity, facility improvements that have been completed in KISD, and touring the elementary campus, the Facilities Advisory Committee came to the unanimous conclusion that the district should immediately begin the process to replace the existing elementary school campus.

Kountze ISD district and campus administration met with the architect to determine a building program, which contains a list of every room and its size needed in the facility, including classrooms, offices, conference rooms, restrooms, gym, cafeteria, media room, etc…

The campus program is then given to contractors to determine an estimate of how much it will cost to build a campus containing all the spaces needed.  Once the estimates are in, factors such as inflation, furnishings, equipment, electrical service, phone service, etc., are added to determine the final cost, which in this case is $28 million.

By law, bond funds cannot be used for payroll expenses or any daily operational costs such as utilities, supplies, fuel, and insurance.  Instead, bond funds can only be used for new buildings, additions and renovations, land acquisition, technology infrastructure and equipment, or school buses.

Renovation was considered, but conservative estimates to renovate the existing elementary campus came in at about $25.6 million, due to the extensive amount of improvements needed and ensuring the facility met current codes.

Typically, new construction (from bond passage to completion) takes about 30-36 months, depending on weather and scope of project.

Bond Election: May 3, 2025

Survey/Soils/Design/Bid Docs: May 2025 to May 2026

Bid/Construction/District Move-In: May 2026 to August 2027

The current plan is to go through the state required Request for Qualification process to select a construction manager at risk as soon as the bond is passed. Once a project manager is selected, they will collaborate with the district and design teams to make the project’s design efficient and align with the district and community needs.

Once the project’s design is detailed, the construction manager will competitively bid the project’s scope to multiple subcontractors to obtain the best pricing possible.

Once the project’s design is detailed, the construction manager will competitively bid the project’s scope to multiple subcontractors to obtain the best pricing possible.

The site and building plans will be custom designed with detailed input from the district’s administration and faculty if the bond passes. Site and floor plan diagrams were created to ensure the building would function efficiently on the site located adjacent and west of the existing Middle School. Publishing these site and floor plan diagrams would be misleading due to the potential for them to be adjusted during the detailed design meetings.

Click the link below to view Kountze ISD's Debt Service Chart:

http://kountzeisdbond.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Debt-Service-Chart.pdf

A tax calculator is available here. Input your appraised home value to get an estimate of the tax increase for your homestead.

A school district’s tax rate is comprised of two components or “buckets”. The first bucket is the Maintenance and Operations budget (M&O), which funds daily costs and recurring or consumable expenditures such as teacher and staff salaries, supplies, software and utilities. The second bucket is the Interest and Sinking budget (I&S), also known as Debt Service, and that is for longer-term capital improvements approved by voters through bond elections. I&S funds cannot by law be used to pay M&O expenses, which means that voter-approved bonds cannot be used to increase teacher salaries or pay rising costs for utilities and services.

No.  By law, if you receive an Age 65 or Older Exemption, your homestead tax rate cannot be raised above the frozen level unless you make significant improvements to your home.  A significant improvement would be anything beyond normal maintenance or repair, such as building a swimming pool or adding a garage or game room.

Early voting takes place from April 22 to April 29, and you can cast a ballot at any voting location during this time. The last day to register to vote in the May election is Thursday, April 3, 2025. Election Day is Saturday, May 3. Visit the Hardin County Elections website for a list of polling locations.

Anyone at least 18 years of age and living within the boundaries of Kountze ISD is eligible to vote.  You must be registered by April 3, 2025 in order to participate in this election.

You can check your voter registration status at www.votetexas.gov.

If you need to update your address, you can simply fill out the change online.

Kountze ISD and their design team understand one of the most important guidelines for school campus design is to separate the school traffic from the public traffic along with maintaining the appropriate amount of stacking space.  Both have taken this as the most important consideration in determining the location for the proposed elementary school.  Many studies were done to understand how to maximize the vehicle off-site stacking space, the parent vehicle circulation between campuses and to maintain a separation between the bus/faculty drives and the parent drives within the site area available and the existing facilities.  In addition to this, KISD and their design team are aware deceleration and acceleration lanes may be required.   If the bond passes, allowing the project to move forward, additional studies and meetings will occur to determine the safest and best final design for the vehicular circulation.