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Getting started at Midway ISD board meeting. So far, there's a request for more counselors to meet growing student population and for a budget amendment to purchase flexible furniture.
Supt. Kazanas says 15 classrooms have this flexible furniture that is being used as part of a study to see how it affects student engagement for elementary students. The 2-year pilot study has provided positive results.
The requests for counselors and budget amendments have been approved by consent agenda. Now we'll move on to the bond package agenda idea to discuss the facilities committee recommendations and district's bonding capacity.
Victor Quiroga with Specialized Public Finance Inc. starts off presentation by explaining low interest rates have maintained steady for past several years and could go even lower at the end of the year. "It's a good time to issue bonds if you have to," he says.
Quiroga: About 103 Texas entities held bond elections on May 4 for a total bond amount of $14.2 billion, with $11.6 billion bonds carrying.
Quiroga: Midway recently passed three bond issues -- in 1999, 2008 and 2013. They were for $51 million, $76 million and $34.5 million, respectively.
Quiroga: Midway ISD currently has $93 million in outstanding debt.
Quiroga: The district has done a good job utilizing the taxpayers' dollars. Midway ISD has been able to refinance bond series for lower interest rates and save about $5 million in interest costs.
Quiroga: Midway rated by Moody's and S&P. Current bonds have highest rating possible due to TEA permanent school finance bond guarantee program.
Quiroga: Another reason Midway has such good rating is because of high fund balance of $24 million. Experts recommend having two-three months' worth of expenses saved in fund balance.
Quiroga: The average annual growth in property values in the district is 4.8%
Quiroga: Midway has one of the lowest tax rates in the McLennan County, although the comparison is not "apples to apples." Midway's tax rate is $1.32, which is similar to its peer districts. For instance, Belton ISD has rate of $1.60.
Easier to show you scenario Quiroga ran than explain it all: 
Second scenario with more growth in property values:
Board members say they expect to see more than 2 percent growth in property valuations.
Board member Tom Pagel says Midway never done bond election in November. "That's not ideal," he says.
"I think we have more informed voters in May. In November, you get much larger turnouts...you end up with folks who don't know anything about the issue at all and are just pulling a lever," Pagel says.
Now board is discussing informing voters. Leslie whose last name I didn't catch says third-party surveys tend to elicit better responses than internal surveys to get pulse of community on bond issue
Board members now looking at potential survey questions for the community, such as: would you vote for this, what in bond is most important to you, etc.
District would need at least 300 survey responses to consider it to be statistically valid, Leslie says.
Cost of conducting survey would be approximately $12,500
