Dear editor,
I’ve been waiting to see if there were going to be more posts put on Falsebook about the current situation with BCISD Finance.
To date, I haven’t seen any.
So, I am going to address a couple of things that I read.
It was suggested that the 2016 School Board somehow mismanaged $124 million in bonds that were approved by the voters.
Bond construction money cannot be used for Maintenance and Operations unless it is specifically designated for that - it’s against the law.
Every penny of that 124 million went to the construction of 3 new campuses, a new baseball field, a new stadium complex, and other renovations and upgrades.
Each one of these was highly necessary, as the then steering committee agreed.
I am proud that we got this done.
In another post, the author suggested that the current financial situation was caused by “they” whom I guess would be previous school boards?
When I left in 2021, we had an almost 12 million dollar fund balance.
In the same post, it was shown that in the last 5 years the tax rate was lowered each year-since 2021.
Lower tax rate plus lower average daily attendance equals less revenue.
So that person has actually contradicted himself.
And by the way - you should select your pronouns more carefully.
Trying to blame previous boards for the financial problems that are now upon us is disingenuous at best.
Mistakes have been made by any school board that has taken the oath of office, including yours-all of them, in some fashion or another, in the history of school boards.
With that being said, the real problem with all school finance is that the State Legislature/Government has dropped the ball and failed to fund the Texas Public School System properly.
All of them - it doesn’t matter if they have a “D or an R” next to their name.
That’s where the blame should be placed.
I have read the many concerns that BCISD leadership has put out to the voters, and in my opinion, passing the VATRE bond is not optional - IT IS MANDATORY.
I highly recommend voting FOR the VATRE to keep our School District functioning properly - I AM!
God Bless.
Robert J. “Bob” Klepac
Past BCISD Board Member and President 2012-2021
