The April 14 meeting of the Blanco ISD Board of Trustees included information about the bond on the May 3 ballot, the graduation ceremony, and a status of the interview process for two vacancies.
The district has received 88 applications for the athletic director/ head football coach position and 15 applications for the elementary principal positions. Interviews are either underway or to be scheduled in the coming weeks. There is a hiring committee which reviews the applications, and trustee Stephen Mackey has been able to bring his relationships within the Texas High School Coaching Association to the process for the AD/football coach position.
The bond election is May 3 and early voting began Tuesday. In order to vote on the 2025 bond, you must go to the Blanco ISD Administration Building at 814 11th Street. If approved, the bond will fund facility upgrades, including the severely outdated HVAC systems across all campuses, improvement of special education facilities at the elementary and high school, improved parking, lighting, sidewalks, buses, renovation of the Ag barn at the high school and more. Proposition B, if approved, will fund district wide technology upgrades. A full list of projects can be found at https://files.gabbart.com/1167/ bond_2025_week_3_facts.pdf.
Early voting takes place this week and April 28-29 from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Election Day is May 3 with voting hours from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Voters who are 65 or older and have an “Over 65 Homestead Exemption” on their taxes will not see an increase to their taxes if they vote yes on the bond. For a home valued at $450,000 (with a $100,000 homestead exemption), the monthly tax impact is estimated to be $16.33, which at this time would be an increase of 5.6 cents. This bond cannot be used for teacher salaries and impacts the interest and sinking fund, not maintenance and operations. The current interest and sinking rate is $0.1150 and the proposed rate is $0.1710. At present. Blanco ISD has one of the lowest tax rates in the area at $0.7919. The Johnson City ISD rate is $0.8608 and the Comal ISD rate $1.0869. A series of town halls have been held to explain the bond and engage the community.
Recognitions for student of the month were: Rush Eickenloff, Blanco Elementary School; Dylan Davila, Blanco Middle School; and Melissa Palacios, Blanco High School. The teacher of the month was Shawna Lechner and the staff of the month was Sally Blackburn.
The TIA recipient recognition dinner will take place May 19, prior to the school board meeting. Graduation ceremonies are scheduled for May 22, and may take place in the new Educational Center for the Arts, which is anticipated to be complete and open by late April or early May. The last day of school is May 20.
