Frequently Asked Questions
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Exactly how much is the District asking for?
The Board of Trustees called a bond election in the amount of $85,580,000 for several school projects to be brought before voters on November 2, 2010.
What is a school bond?
A school bond is similar to a home mortgage. It is a contract to repay borrowed money with a low-cost interest rate over time. Bonds are sold by a school district to competing lenders to raise funds to pay for the costs of construction, renovations and equipment. Most school districts in Texas utilize bonds to finance renovations and new facilities.
How was the bond package developed?
Last year, the LHISD Board of Trustees formed a Citizens’ Facility Committee comprised of 21 members of our community. Since last November, the committee has been developing a plan to address the growth in our district. The Board also hired an architect to perform a facility assessment of all district campuses in 2009. The firm studied our campuses in terms of building code, handicap accessibility, Texas Education Agency (TEA) standards, mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems, and structural and architectural conditions. The committee worked with LHISD Administration and the district’s architect to study current facility conditions, demographic projections and a variety of possible scenarios in order to make a recommendation to the LHISD Board of Trustees for a November 2, 2010 bond election. On August 16, 2010, the Board voted unanimously to call a bond election for the Committee’s recommended projects.
What does the proposed bond election address?
The bond election has been called to address student growth in our district.
How much has the district grown over the last few years?
Since 2006, our district has grown by 20 percent, from 2,229 students to 2,673 students. The district’s demographer estimates that the district will grow by another 35 percent by 2020.
How is the District's tax rate configured?
A school district's tax rate is comprised of two tax rates: the Maintenance & Operations tax (M&O) and the Interest & Sinking tax (I&S). The M&O rate is used to operate the school district, including salaries, utilities, furniture, supplies, food, gas, etc. The I&S rate is used to pay off school construction bonds. Bond sales only affect the I&S rate.
How will the proposed bond election affect my taxes?
If the bond election is successful, the I&S tax rate is estimated to increase by a maximum of 27.8 cents. The tax rate will increase incrementally over several years, will level off and then decline. The following represents the estimated tax rate increase:
Tax Year |
I&S Tax Rate Increase |
2011/12 |
7.5 cents |
2012/13 |
9.5 cents |
2013/14 |
10.2 cents |
2014/15 |
0.6 cents |
2015/16 |
-1.1 cents |
Please visit the Tax Impact page for more information.
What if I am 65-years-old or older? Will my taxes go up if the bond election is successful?
No. If you have applied for and received the Age 65 Freeze on your homestead, your school taxes will not be raised above their frozen level.
What are the tax rates of other local school districts?
The chart below illustrates the current tax rates of school districts in Williamson County.
School District |
M&O Tax Rate |
I&S Tax Rate |
Total Tax Rate |
Granger ISD |
$1.040 |
$0.065 |
$1.105 |
Thrall ISD |
$1.040 |
$0.154 |
$1.194 |
Florence ISD |
$1.040 |
$0.190 |
$1.230 |
Liberty Hill ISD |
$1.040 |
$0.220 |
$1.260 |
Georgetown ISD |
$1.040 |
$0.250 |
$1.290 |
Jarrell ISD |
$1.040 |
$0.330 |
$1.370 |
Leander ISD |
$1.040 |
$0.382 |
$1.422 |
Pflugerville ISD |
$1.040 |
$0.420 |
$1.460 |
Hutto ISD |
$1.040 |
$0.445 |
$1.485 |
Taylor ISD |
$1.040 |
$0.450 |
$1.490 |
What building materials will be used in the new high school?
The new high school will be designed with sustainable and durable materials in an effort to achieve a 50- to 75-year lifecycle of the building. Such materials include:
- Energy efficient, low e-glass windows giving the envelope a low heat gain ratio for the overall exterior wall load
- Ground source heating and air-conditioning (Geothermal)
- Carpet tiles that incorporate sustainable technologies including antimicrobial properties within the backing and a high recycle content for the entire product
- Insulated masonry wall system with thermal lag efficiency
- Terrazzo flooring in corridors and common areas
- Energy Management system with DDC controls
- Occupancy sensors
- Natural daylight in all classrooms
Where will the new high school be located?
The proposed new high school will be located on Highway 29 just west of town across from Liberty Hill Cemetery.
What is the timeline for the proposed projects if the bond is successful?
Please click here for a link to the proposed schedule.
What will happen to the existing stadium if the bond passes and a new stadium is constructed at the new high school location?
The existing stadium will be used for Seventh and Eighth Grade games, band practice and soccer practice and will also be open to the community as a walking/jogging track.
What is the present bonded indebtedness for the district and how much does it add to the current tax rate? When the last bonds were sold, was the prediction to what it would add to the tax rate accurate?
The current bonded indebtedness of the district as of August 31, 2010 is $29,505,000 and the current I&S tax rate for 2010/11 is $0.22 per $100 of taxable value. The bonds for the current Liberty Hill High School for $13,900,000 were sold in December 1997, and the bonds for Bill Burden Elementary for $20,000,000 were sold in January 2006. The chart below illustrates the projected versus actual I&S tax rates for the two issues.
The original tax rate projections proved to be higher than actual figures due to more growth in taxable value than anticipated. When calculating estimated tax rates, a conservative approach is taken so that the tax rate will not be higher than projected.
How much of $71,035,000 is for new high school, stadiums, etc.? Can you break it down?
New High School $51,493,853
Athletic Field Houses $5,635,990*
Stadium/Track $3,783,146
Softball/Baseball Fields $5,476,235**
Tennis Courts $671,297
Football Field & 2 Practice Fields $2,581,912
Contingency $1,392,849
*Includes field houses for: baseball, softball, football, soccer, tennis and track/field
**Includes fields, dugouts, bleachers, lighting, concessions, restrooms, scoreboard, fencing, press box, sound system and associated parking for both baseball and softball
Using the estimated tax impact table, by year 2014/15 the LHISD tax rate will be $1.538 (the highest in Williamson, Travis or Burnet counties). For a $300,000 appraisal, the total monthly tax increase would be approximately $65 per month. Is that correct?
To answer your first question, yes. However, that assumes no other district in the aforementioned counties will increase their tax rate with a successful bond election, tax ratification election, etc. When all of the current tax rates are released, there will be several districts at, close to, and even higher than this. Hutto ISD, for example, will probably be at $1.54. Leander, Pflugerville, Del Valle and Jarrell ISDs will be very close to that rate in 2010. Georgetown ISD is holding a bond election for November 2 as well, which proposes to increase their tax rate by 10.2 cents.
To answer the second question, yes. Based on our current assumptions, the cumulative monthly increase by 2014/15 would be approximately $65. The assumptions that could affect the final impact on the tax rate are the interest rates actually received, the actual growth in the taxable assessed values and any potential changes in the school finance laws.
When LHISD sells the bonds, a lower interest rate could be attained, thus reducing the impact to tax payers. Currently, the district is utilizing a conservative estimate of a 5.2% and a 5.35% interest rate to calculate the potential tax impact; however, today's market rate is certainly less than that.
Furthermore, if the district grows more than predicted and/or taxable values increase, the impact to tax payers could also be lessened. Currently, the district is assuming a 1 percent drop in values for the 2010-11 tax year and 10 percent growth in values per year after that. Actual growth of the district has been 16.87 percent on average over the past 10 years.
How much is the football stadium going to cost?
The stadium is estimated to cost $3,783,146. This includes bleachers, lighting, restrooms, concessions, scoreboard, sound system and a track.
Relative to the subject of enrollment forecasts: 1) Are the enrollments forecasted in the materials mailed to the voters for the 11/2/10 election calculated purely from historical growth figures? If so, what percentages were used, and if not, how were those growth factors derived?
The district still uses a demographer for growth projections. The past projections have been extremely accurate. The projections for the next several years are based on a 4 percent growth rate. Over the past few years, the growth has ranged from 3 to 9 percent.
What were the actual enrollments for 2010 through 2013 that were forecasted by the demographer in conjunction with the 2005 bond elections under the historical, medium and high growth scenarios?
Today, the district utilizes a new demographer, School District Strategies, to forecast student enrollment. The demographer updates the projections quarterly based on factors including historical and current enrollment, price range of homes built and stage of development. Current enrollment projections can be found in the chart below.
Today, the current enrollment in Liberty Hill ISD is 2,702 students.
With respect to table identifying potential monthly tax increases by home value, is there an implicit assumption as to increase in appraised value of the home over the course of the 2010-2011 to 2015-2016, and if so what is that assumption?
School districts do not appraise the value of homes; the county tax appraisal district oversees that process. Over time, homeowners can see an increase or a decrease (as many saw this year) in their home appraisal; also, the growth in one area of the district could also be different from another. Therefore, it is difficult to assume increases or decreases in individual home values over time, and the estimated tax rate table does not include such an assumption.
Lastly, at some of the public meetings held during the last election members of the public asked what the current high school was sized to handle. I sure seem to recall our Board/Administration's answer being that the "core" facilities (library, cafetorium, etc.) were originally sized to handle 1,200, but that the current class room capacity was only 750 or so and that additional wings would have to be added to the east or north side of the current structures to accommodate that additional load. Having seen how crowded lunch periods were that seemed a stretch to say the cafetorium could handle that many, but I'm pretty sure that was what was said. I would appreciate your guidance on where the 600 capacity number in the mailer came from, and how that jives with our responses in 2005.
As part of the facility assessment performed in the spring, the core of the high school facility was reviewed. Based on current TEA standards and various state-mandated programs, the core facilities are considered undersized for the current student population.
In terms of classroom capacity, the district has needed to change traditional classrooms into special use classrooms over the past 10 years due to various state-required programs, like Life Skills classrooms and business computer labs, thus reducing the practical classroom capacity to 600.
What is the projected increase in the M&O rate during the next five years?
Under current law, school districts can levy no more than the current $1.04 per $100 of taxable value without voter approval in the form of a tax ratification election. Currently, the district is not planning such an election; therefore, no increase in the M&O rate is predicted.
Since we are an open district school, what are the number of students that are attending LHISD that are out-of-district and not paying anything to attend and that are included within these growth number predictions?
The facility committee studied this in detail early on in the process, and took it into consideration when recommendations were made to the school board. First, the reason that the district has an open transfer policy is to keep the taxable property value below the Chapter 41 (Robin Hood) cut off point. Without the transfer students, LHISD would be considered a “property rich” district and would have to send local tax dollars to the state to be distributed among “property poor” districts. As of the end of September, there were 2,681 students enrolled in Liberty Hill ISD. Of this total, 251 students are out-of-district transfers, living outside the district. Of the 251 students, 65 are district employee's children, which the district is mandated, by the state of Texas, to accept.
