(Seguin) — The Seguin ISD is taking another swing at getting a new baseball/softball complex built on the high school campus.
It was just over two months ago when local voters turned down a $7.5 million bond issue for the sports complex. Now following action on Tuesday, the school board is returning with another attempt for the same complex – an attempt that will go before voters on Saturday, May 6.
Explaining why the school district felt it needed to give it another go was Seguin ISD Superintendent Dr. Matthew Gutierrez.
“There were a lot of bonds that failed in November. We were very fortunate that our Proposition A passed and I’m very thankful and grateful for the community’s support.
Unfortunately, Proposition B did not pass and many other districts are going back out. Some of them deciding May, others decide November. What I believe is really to give the voters another opportunity on whether or not they would support a baseball/softball facility. I think it was the largest bond in Seguin ISD’s history. There was a lot that that bond package entailed — safety and security, a new McQueeney Elementary, Ag/Science facility, Barnes expansion and the list goes on. So, you are limited in the amount of emphasis on any one part of that bond package. This would allow an opportunity to solely focus on that one facility keeping in mind that we do not have a baseball facility of our own — most districts do,” said Gutierrez.
Perhaps one of the most important components of bringing the item back on the ballot is that the complex, if approved by voters in May, would come with NO tax increase. Hopefully, Gutierrez says this would allow voters to seriously consider the new turfed fields and help the district finally complete all the facilities for the high school campus.
“I know we had conversations years ago about some possibilities but a lot has changed in the last four and five years when you look at the cost of construction as well as just the way that the economy is and we had discussions and possibilities of looking at fund balance. Well the cost of building a facility like this continues to rise and I can’t imagine what the cost will be in a year or two or three down the road and if we get to a place where we do it in phases, well, who gets priority? Is it boys or is it girls? And so, we could likely end up in a place where we are making some difficult decisions but right now, we all know that those two programs are hurting and there is a strong desire to complete that high school package that we’ve been talking about since the high school opened,” said Gutierrez.
Now without raising the tax rate, district officials say they are still able to generate enough in tax collections to pay the debt that would be associated with the $7.5 million. Better explaining how the bond project would not increase the tax rate was Tony Hillberg, the chief financial officer for the Seguin ISD.
“So property values go up historically and in the last few years, property values have gone up a lot faster in this area than we’ve ever seen in the past. We are able to apply paying down debt early and so even with the tax rate that we’ve had, we’ve actually collected more in terms of tax than what we needed and we used those dollars to buy down debt. When we buy down debt, that actually gives us more capacity. We have less debt to pay and therefore that coupled with the fact when we do a refinance, you wouldn’t do that unless your annual requirement would be going down and so that’s what we’ve taken advantage of,” said Hillberg.
Dr. Gutierrez says the complex itself would not only serve the students but would be a great asset to the community as a whole. The potential to host tournaments and other events make the fields a great investment.
“Part of the data that we want to try to get in partnership with the city’s economic development is just the impact that it is having on our economy. As we have now stated with the art facilities and we are able to host statewide or regional events whether it’s for fine arts or athletics, it is certainly having an impact on not only our district but on our local economy. But having a facility like this would allow us the opportunity to host different tournaments as well and even to look at expanding. There’s been a very strong interest in expanding the baseball/softball to the middle school. There have certainly been some limitations and in an effort to be competitive, you want to start to develop those skills early on and a lot of our students don’t have the opportunity to start in a Little League. Those things cost. It could expand opportunities for more students but we would certainly look at using this facility to host our own events for our students which we struggle to do,” said Gutierrez.
Seguin ISD Athletic Director Craig Dailey was also on hand Tuesday night to talk about the struggles of the district not having its own baseball field. He says a player on average spends 40 minutes a day traveling to and from the city-owned Smokey Joe Field at the Seguin Events Complex. He also provided the team’s struggle earlier that day when kids during the sunshine were bused to Barnes Middle School because the fields were wet. He says not only did they have to practice indoors but parents had to work through the trouble of going and picking them up after practice. On top of the inconvenience of having to go off campus to play ball, he says both the baseball and softball fields are in horrible condition. District officials say even some teams dislike having to come to Seguin because of the fields and the danger that they pose for their players.
The decision to call for the bond election was unanimous. District officials say the campaign for the new baseball/softball complex will get heavy as the weeks continue. Additional information is expected to be made available soon on the district’s website.