With early voting starting on Oct. 21, Rockwall ISD voters will soon decide the fate of the district’s proposed property tax increase and three bond requests.
The voter-approval tax ratification election will appear on the ballot as Proposition A and is asking for an increase to the RISD property tax rate from $1.02 per $100 valuation to $1.1469 for every $100 of a property’s appraised value.
One of the board-approved priorities for funds from the tax increase – if the proposition passes – is offering teachers more competitive pay with the goal of retaining and recruiting more high quality educators. Another priority agreed upon by the board for the increased tax revenue is to help the district better keep up with unfunded mandates from the State of Texas, such as meeting higher security standards and requiring at least one peace officer per campus.
As for RISD’s bond elections called for this November, the three propositions total to $848.678 million in projects.
Proposition B – which has a requested amount of $787.062 million – is for:
• The designing, constructing, renovating, improving, upgrading, updating, acquiring and equipping of school facilities;
• Purchase of land for new facilities;
• Purchase of new school buses and retrofitting buses with improved emergency, safety and security equipment;
• Purchase and retrofitting of vehicles to be used for emergency, safety or security purposes, and;
• Expansion of the district’s digital video recording systems storage capacity to 187 days.
On the same note of expanding the security video recording capacity, the school board also agreed at the same meeting on Monday to a smaller expansion to the system from its current capacity of 30-40 days to 120 days.
The remaining two propositions from Rockwall ISD that will appear on the Nov. 5 ballot are:
• Proposition C for $18.656 million for instructional technology equipment and infrastructure, and;
• Proposition D for $42.96 million in renovations and improvements to district and campus sports stadiums.
Early voting for the election will run from Oct. 21 through Nov. 1. In Rockwall County, early voters will have five choices of voting location: Rockwall County Library, Fate City Hall, Heath City Hall, Rowlett Utility Customer Service Center, and Royse City City Hall. Please note that on Oct. 27, Rockwall County Library will be the only location open for early voting.
For those who vote on Election Day on Nov. 5, Rockwall County residents will be able to vote at any of the above-listed locations in addition to the following: The Center at Rockwall City Place, Gene Burton College and Career Academy, McClendon-Chisholm City Hall, Our Savior Lutheran Church, Ridgeview Church, Rockwall Area Chamber of Commerce, Rockwall Golf & Athletic Club Conference Center, Rockwall ISD Administration Building.