Tomball Independent School District (TISD) will hold a $429.1 million bond election May 3 after the TISD Board of Trustees unanimously voted in favor of it. The election comes following a recommendation from a community-based Bond Steering Committee, which met in December 2024 and January 2025 to discuss the topic. TISD Board President Michael J. Pratt said the election comes as “recognition that our aging facilities and student support programs needed to be addressed.”
The vote will occur in May rather than in November with other elections to account for limited construction windows, material delivery times and rising costs due to inflation. TISD Superintendent Martha Salazar-Zamora said the bond would fund projects to meet the district’s growth and infrastructure needs. TISD covers 83 square miles in northwest Harris County and southwest Montgomery County, educating more than 23,000 students across 24 campuses.
The $429,095,000 bond aims to fund new facilities and technologies. It will also provide upgrades and address needs throughout the district, including refreshing aging campuses and facilities, meeting state-mandated safety and security guidelines, accounting for new student growth, addressing transportation needs and refreshing and replacing outdated technology.
The bond includes four proposals, A-D, which will all be voted on separately. Proposition A is the most expensive at $331,595,000 and focuses on refreshing aging campuses and facilities as well as adjusting for student growth. The general-purpose proposal includes the following projects:
New Tomball Intermediate School
Safety and security upgrades
Existing campus refresh
Early Excellence Academy – South
Facility infrastructure replacements
Transportation Center expansion
Fleet additions and replacements
Program Expansion (Special Services)
Program Expansion (CTE)
Fine Arts updates
Athletic facility upgrades
Elementary library refresh
Connections Academy renovation
Elementary No. 13 land and site development only
Proposition B focuses on upgrading technology for staff and students. The approximately $18 million proposal will address:
Student Chromebook refresh
SMART panel replacement
Staff device refresh
At an estimated $2.8 million, Proposition C is the least costly of the four. It includes an upgrade to Tomball High School’s football stadium in addition to:
Equipment and infrastructure
Turf and track replacement/resurfacing
Returning voters will be familiar with the details of Proposition D, which was rejected during the 2021 bond election by 417 votes. This proposition includes building fine arts/athletics multi-program activity centers at Tomball High School, Tomball Memorial High School and Tomball West High School.
TISD hopes to complete the projects with the bond funds to avoid having to dip into its general operating budget, which could impact day-to-day operations.
“Without the funds approved by the community for these projects, the district will have to access local budget dollars that are in place to provide high-quality instruction and to recruit and retain the highest quality staff,” Salazar-Zamora said.
Since the 2021 bond vote, the school district has completed all but three major projects. All were funded through the bond vote; however, the district did face a 32% rise in construction costs two years after the bond had passed. The final $100 million of allocated funds will go toward the completion of West Intermediate School, Tomball West High School and the fifth-grade addition at Creekside Park Junior High. If all 2025 bond propositions pass, a timeline for the new and ongoing projects would be as follows:
2025
May 3: Election day
Summer: Construction to begin on 2025 bond projects
2026
Fall: All 2021 bond projects completed
2027
Summer: Early Excellence Academy – South opens
2028
Summer/fall: New Tomball Intermediate School, multi-program activity centers open
2029
Summer/fall: Upgrades to athletic facilities, safety/security, and technology completed; Connections Academy renovation completed
2030
Winter: All 2025 bond projects completed
TISD Chief Financial Officer Zack Boles says the bond should not raise TISD’s total tax rate of $1.06 per $100 valuation because it falls within the district’s $430 million debt capacity. Early voting for the election begins on April 22 and runs through April 29. Election day for all four bond propositions is Saturday, May 3, 2025. Further information on the bond proposal can be found here.
Image by StockSnap from Pixabay
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