KATY, Texas — A big school bond election is coming to Katy ISD this fall. The $840.6 million bond is the largest yet. If it's successful, it will fund technology for students, security enhancements, build new schools and address aging campuses.
KHOU 11 anchor Mia Gradney sat down with Katy ISD Superintendent Dr. Ken Gregorski to learn more about the bond and also to get back-to-school questions and concerns addressed.
The district is home to about 94,000 students and has 46 elementary schools. Gregorski showed Gradney around Sundown Elementary School.
"It's probably about 40 years old," he said. "We do have Sundown listed on our next school bonds that will come to the voters in November of 2023.
But, at old and new campuses alike, parents want to know about security. New safety standards and protecting students ranked among Katy parents' top concerns in the KHOU 11 Back to School Survey.
Texas classrooms are required to have silent panic buttons, but one viewer asked a slightly different question.
"Do Katy ISD schools have emergency buttons? Panic buttons?" Celeste asked.
The answer?
"We are already out in front of what some of these new mandates are, including the panic buttons or panic alarms or ways to call in immediately. So, all of our classrooms have been outfitted with a feature that you can call in and make those calls for panic or emergency. And all of our staff, when they return, as they are back now, are receiving training on how those systems," Gregorski said.
In addition, more security upgrades were made or are in the works at campuses across the district.
"We also have as part of House Bill 3, what you would call a bullet-resistant type, covering on the glassware which is in the works right now for all of our buildings for those exterior windows. And the other one is the numbering system. The State of Texas is going with a standardized numbering system on the exterior doors and windows. So when first responders show up, every school is numbered the same way. So we're going through those two steps right now," Gregorski said.
Katy ISD likes to be ahead of things. They pride themselves on being one of the top-ranked school districts in the Houston area. However, it's not without its own challenges.
Books that have been banned within the district have become a big point of contention for some parents and students -- from pulling certain titles to warehousing newly ordered books.
The school board voted to do so to be in compliance with House Bill 900, which goes into effect on Sept. 1 and requires new ratings, regulations and standards for books with content deemed inappropriate.
"Is warehousing books an effective use of time resources and personnel?" one parent asked.
"So, when those books were purchased, they were purchased under one standard, OK, and one set of board policies, but when the law changed, we don't have any control over the law. So if we've got books that we now are coming in as part of an incoming collection, we should review those books and apply them to a new standard that was just passed in the legislature. And we'll move through that pretty rapidly," Gregorski said.
Despite the back and forth, books are not Katy ISD's biggest concern heading into the 2023-2024 school year.
"The school finance issue, I'm still very concerned about that. We get funded, one of our biggest parts of tier one funding is something called the basic allotment. OK, the state has not changed the basic allotment since 2019. And there's something out there. And it's called inflation. So when you think about inflation, but you think the dollars flowing into schools from the state of Texas hasn't changed since 2019. That is a real challenge," Gregorski said.
While the district focuses on funding and the future, they said they won't overlook the excitement of the here and now -- the first day of school.
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