Security projects are a sizable part of a $2.44 billion bond proposal Austin Independent School District placed on the Nov. 8 ballot just months after the deadly mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas.
The biggest-ever bond election for the fifth-largest school district in Texas would allocate at least $257.4 million for safety-related equipment and infrastructure, including intruder detection systems and a secure vestibule and entry point at every school, as well as door locks and additional fencing.
”It was always a part of our efforts to make sure our kids are safe and obviously the Uvalde shooting made it a little bit more urgent for all of us,” School Board President Geronimo Rodriguez Jr. said.
The May 24 killing of 19 elementary students and two teachers in Uvalde put a focus on door security, inadequate fencing, as well as emergency response communications.
The number of shootings with casualties at elementary and secondary public and private schools increased in recent years, according to a June 2022 report from the federal government’s Institute of Education Sciences that cites data beginning in 2000.
The report also said the percentage of public schools with security measures such as controlled access to buildings, security cameras, and on-site security staff at least once a week increased between the 2009-10 and 2019-20 school years.
With each high-profile shooting, school officials can be pressured by parents, politicians, and local media to act, said Ken Trump, president of National School Safety and Security Services, a school security consulting firm.
“Parents and the community want something visible, tangible. Something you can point to like door access controls, more cameras, single points of entry,” he said, adding the emphasis is put on target hardening, “which is largely driven by a political push in response to the gun-control debate.”
He warned the purchase and installation of equipment can result in “security theater” if a district fails to regularly budget for its maintenance and repair, as well as for ongoing staff training.
Still, security can be a selling point for bonds.
“You could have a bond where the real agenda and goal is to do a whole lot of things with construction and renovations and work on the schools and you have 5% of it or 10% of it at best for security,” Trump said. “But how is it sold (to voters)? It’s sold on security.”
Issuing bonds to pay for security hardware and other equipment is not new in Texas; however some options like bulletproof glass have become economically feasible, according to Tracy Ginsburg, executive director of the Texas Association of School Business Officials.
“Certainly we are all very concerned in reaction to Uvalde and realize that we just can’t assume what we’ve done is enough, but we also have always thought about school safety,” she said, adding that she doesn’t believe Texas districts are putting security improvements into bond issues to ensure they get passed.
Several districts in the state list security as a use for proceeds from bonds they hope voters will approve in November, although most of the funds would be allocated for new, expanded, or refurbished school facilities to accommodate rising enrollment in many cases.
Spring Independent School District north of Houston would spend a chunk of the $850 million of bonds it is requesting for shooter-detection systems and to improve radio communications, expand security camera coverage and alarms, and install metal detectors, bulletproof glass, fencing, gates and other equipment and safety improvements at its 55 buildings.
Mark Miranda, executive chief of district operations, said while a 2016 bond issue provided funding for some security measures, the new bonds would fund much more.
“We always knew even prior to Uvalde that we were going to ramp up security in this coming bond and then of course Uvalde solidified what we were already planning to do,” he said.
Texas City Independent School District financed security improvements with a bond issue approved by voters just prior to a May 2018 high school shooting in nearby Santa Fe that killed 10, according to district spokeswoman Melissa Tortorici.
Now, the school system is seeking voter approval for $158.6 million of bonds with about $1.3 million earmarked for campus intercom system upgrades with paging ability from any phone, outdoor speakers in common areas, a LED panic beacon for security alerts, monitoring station equipment, bulletproof glass in reception areas, and additional fencing, gates and cameras.
“I believe as a whole, the community is pleased with the efforts that we’ve been making over the last four years,” Tortorici said, adding the district is “getting back to basics” with safety monitors at each of the schools constantly checking that doors are locked.
After building security vestibules at most of its elementary schools with proceeds from a 2016 bond issue, East Central Independent School District in the San Antonio area is seeking to do the same for the rest of its schools, particularly the high school, as part of a $240 million bond measure, according to Brandon Oliver, the school system’s marketing and communications director.
”At East Central High School, anyone can walk in,” he said. “It needs that vestibule so there is one point of entry.”
The school police headquarters would be moved to a renovated facility at a cost of $3 million. The bulk of the bond proceeds would build new elementary and middle schools amid projections that enrollment, currently at about 9,800, will nearly double by 2030.
A $1.173 billion Plano Independent School District bond measure includes money for security camera improvements, two-way radio replacements, shatter-resistant window film, and a centralized emergency operations location.
Texas school systems are required to list bonds to fund general and special purpose projects separately on the ballot and to alert voters that the bonds involve a property tax increase.
Austin ISD has security-related projects included in a $2.316 billion measure to fund school modernization to ease the burden on the operating budget to pay for major repairs at its 125 schools. Two other measures totaling $123 million would fund technology-related investments and improvements to sports facilities.
If all are approved by voters, the debt service portion of the school system’s tax rate is expected to increase by one cent per $100 in taxable value, while rising property values are expected to reduce the school operating part of the tax rate over two years.
Eduardo Ramos, the district’s chief financial officer, said extending maturities to 25 years depending on market conditions instead of the district’s typical 20 years, along with debt refundings anticipated over the next five years, would free capacity for the new bonds within the one cent tax rate increase.