The Richardson school district (RISD) is conducting a "listening tour" to get community feedback on a proposed 2016 bond package. Meetings are being held this week at each of the four high schools. The first was Monday night at JJ Pearce High School. Nothing is finalized yet (hence the listening tour), but here are the wish list numbers and how much debt RISD can carry without a tax rate increase.
Wish List:
- Maintenance: $216 million
- Capacity expansion: $59 million
- Enrichment options:
- Multipurpose facilities: $82 million
- Career and Technical Education, JROTC: $10 million
- Library transformation: $23 million
- Technology enrichment: $23 million
- Total: $417 million
Bond capacity
- No tax rate increase: $235 million
- Raise tax rate by 10 cents: $460 million
First, I'll give my impressions of the feedback of the JJ Pearce community. Then I'll discuss the elephant in the room.