Mesquite ISD board calls $600 million bond election for May 3, 2025

The Mesquite Independent School District Board of Trustees on Monday adopted an order calling a $600 million bond election to be held May 3, 2025, after a presentation from the district’s facilities committee and financial advisers.

The vote was 7-0 after a motion by Trustee Everett and a second by Trustee Bingham. The bond package would be presented to voters in two propositions: Proposition A for $578,550,000 covering school safety and security upgrades, elimination of temporary classrooms, consolidation and replacement of aging elementary schools, high school improvements, a new pre-K center in the Horn feeder pattern, transportation center upgrades and replacement cycles for roofs and buses; and Proposition B for $21,500,000 limited to districtwide instructional-technology replacement.

The board moved the item after a recap of the facilities committee’s months-long review. Doctor Fields summarized the committee’s priorities, including adding secure vestibules and storm shelters at campuses that lack them, relocating elementary playgrounds closer to buildings and perimeter fencing, and major improvements at three high schools and two elementary schools. The committee recommended consolidating the district’s two oldest elementary schools and building a new elementary campus.

Jason Hughes, senior managing director at Hilltop Securities, and bond counsel Kristen Savant of Norton Rose Fulbright joined staff and architects to answer trustees’ questions about financing and timing. Hughes said the district modeled conservative assumptions for interest rates and taxable-value growth and that, if voters approve the bond, the first sale of bonds could occur in mid‑July to August 2025. He estimated an initial sale of roughly $275 million but said actual sale timing and amounts would be decided later if the authorization passes.

District presenters told trustees the facilities committee limited its revenue model to a 1-cent increase in the district’s interest-and-sinking (I&S) tax rate. Using the district’s example figures, officials said the average home value in the district of $278,000, after a $100,000 homestead exemption (taxable value $178,000), would see an estimated increase of $1.48 per month (about $17.80 per year) under that 1-cent scenario; a $450,000 home (taxable value $350,000 after the exemption) was presented as an example with an estimated $2.92 monthly increase. Officials also noted that homeowners age 65 or older who already have a frozen tax levy and the age-based exemption would not see an increase to their frozen school-tax amount.

Trustees emphasized safety as a key justification for the bond. Trustee Bingham and others said the package responds to campus security, growing enrollment on the district’s south side, and deferred maintenance. Doctor Fields and trustees described the authorization as conservative and stressed that approval would not automatically trigger sales; separate board votes would be required before issuing bonds.

The facilities committee provided an election timeline in the presentation: last day to register April 3, early voting April 22–29, and Election Day Saturday, May 3, 2025. District staff said the committee considered special-purpose proposition rules when designing the package and placed instructional technology in a separate proposition to comply with state requirements.

The board motion to adopt the order calling the election passed unanimously, 7-0.

Ending: With the order adopted, district staff and advisers said they will complete post-adoption legal and marketing steps and continue project-level planning; if voters approve the propositions, specific bond sales and construction schedules would return to the board for later approval.