A presentation of school finance and the cost of construction for schools were presented at an Ector County ISD bond advisory committee meeting Monday.
The meeting was held in the cafeteria of George H.W. Bush New Tech Odessa. The next meeting will be at 6 p.m. March 30.
Districts have two revenue streams of maintenance and operations and interest and sinking, or debt service. The total rate is $1.17 per $100 valuation. That includes $1.06 for maintenance and operations and 11 cents per $100 valuation for debt service.
Chief Financial Officer Deborah Ottmers said it has been at that rate for four years. Ottmers said education is expensive and very labor intensive.
Maintenance and operations includes teacher salaries, classroom supplies, utilities and transportation.
Debt service includes capital expenditures, land, building, construction/renovations and technology infrastructure. The debt service budget is about one-tenth the size of the maintenance and operations fund, she said.
Most district funding comes from property taxes or state funding, Ottmers said.
The maximum the debt service tax can reach is 50 cents per $100 valuation.
Ottmers said bonds cannot be used to pay salaries. Funds collected can only be used for the repayment of debt (annual principal and interest)
The community authorizes the district to issue bonds through a bond referendum. The district receives the proceeds of the bond issue up front and the district pays off the debt over time with the revenue generated through the interest and sinking tax rate.
Ottmers said ECISD has about $16 billion in property value.
The fund balance is not a savings account, but Ottmers said if you want to think of it in those terms you can. ECISD strives to keep 20-25 percent of its operating expenditures in the fund balance.
“The goal is to maintain that adequate level for those unforeseen costs that come up,” Ottmers said. “Our healthy fund balance has allowed our bond rating to increase.”
Savings since 2020, Ottmers said a total $26.9 million has been paid in bond refinancing.
As of now, Ottmers said, ECISD owes $107 million in principal and $27 million in interest for a total 134.7 million.
Ottmers said they will pay that off in August 2037 or in 14 1/2 years, according to their payment schedule.
As for students that don’t live in ECISD but go to school here, Ottmers said they get the same amount of money.
Midland has some of ECISD kids, too, she said.
Superintendent Scott Muri said as of 2021-22, 215 came into ECSID and 3,628 left.
Left means left for charter, private school, to go to another district or to be home schooled, Muri said.
This year, ECISD took in STEM Academy, so 700 students came in that were not here last year.
About 1,200 of the students that left went to Compass Academy Charter School. Muri said 29 ECISD students went to Midland and 215 came to Ector County from Midland County.
Darrell Pearson, partner and senior client executive with PBK Architects, said a big high school for 2,800 students costs $197,625,000 to $279,000,000.
A middle school for 1,000 students costs $63,750,000 to $72,250,000.
An elementary school for 750 students costs $37,400,000 to $42,900,000.
These are construction costs not total costs and it includes an additional 25 percent in soft costs.
According to buildxact.com, soft costs are all of the other expenses involved in a construction project that do not deal with the physical construction or process of construction. Most of these costs are for non-tangible items, such as services, fees, and insurance, the website said.
As for public vs charter school costs, Pearson said if you dig through the drawings what you’ll normally find is sheetrock walls and not concrete masonry units. Pearson said oftentimes charters have higher maintenance because of the methods and materials that cause it to be less expensive.
