Published: November 02, 2007 08:36 pm      

Hubbard ISD set for Election Day

Voters to decide on bond, rollback in Tuesday election

Voters in Hubbard Independent School District will have a chance to weigh in on several issues Tuesday with regard to the future of their school district.

On the ballot are three issues: a possible rollback of the tax rate, a bond package for a three-phase new construction project, and a refinancing of a debt to lower the interest rate on a previous construction project.

A proposed tax rate of about $1.36 per each $100 of appraised property value is one issue on the ballot. Of that, $1.17 will go for maintenance and operations, and nearly 19 cents will go toward paying off existing debt. Since this rate exceeds the state-allowed maximum of $1.04, the voters must approve it on the Tuesday ballot.

Also, a bond package for roughly $8.7 million dedicated to new construction will be put before the voters. The construction project encompasses three phases: a new secondary gymnasium, a new high school, and a new elementary school.

“We have about 460 children in our district this year,” said Walter Padgett, superintendent. “Our elementary school is 50 years old, and our high school is 25 to 30 years old. We had to close our elementary gym last year because it was structurally unsound.”

The extremely clay-rich soil in Hill County/western Navarro County is mainly to blame for structural issues with the school buildings. The high school gym was closed for a time while structural repairs were done, and the only gym in the district currently without structural issues is the middle school gym, which is non-instructional, and was built in the last four to five years.

“We’ve had to overhaul one entire bathroom in the high school because the walls caved in, due to the foundation shifting,” he said. “We were doomed because they didn’t put long enough piers and beam in 27 years ago when they built the high school.”

The first phase of the new construction, should the voters approve it, would begin in August 2008 with a new secondary gymnasium. Phase two would begin a year later, August 2009, with the construction of a new high school campus. The existing high school would be demolished, and the new campus also located on State Highway 31, about two miles west of downtown Hubbard.

“This construction will incorporate longer beams and better foundation to prevent shifting in the future,” Padgett said.

Phase three would be the construction of a new elementary school, with a proposed start date of August 2010.

Larry Hawthorne, Hubbard ISD school board president, owns property in the district, and has several grandchildren in Hubbard schools.

“We feel it makes more sense economically to start over and build it right, fix it one time and be done with it — at that rate — instead of patching at it over and over,” Hawthorne said.

The third item on the ballot is the refinancing of $725,000 worth of debt from previous construction, at a better interest rate, thereby saving the district money in the long term. The debt is from construction of an outside track, as well as some maintenance expense.

What this breaks down to for tax payers is: Approval of the rollback rate will cost the owner of a $50,000 home an additional $65 per year in property taxes.

Approval of the $8.7 million bond package will cost the same homeowner an additional $98 per year.

“We’re trying to make things better for the kids,” Hawthorne said. “Trying to give them the best education possible.”

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Deanna Plemons may be contacted via e-mail at deannap@corsicanadailysun.com