Conroe ISD board finds petition to detach Montgomery Trace Section 4 fails required property‑value ratio and declines to proceed

CONROE, Texas — Conroe ISD trustees on March 2 concluded a statutorily required fact‑finding hearing and voted to decline a petition that sought to detach Montgomery Trace Section 4 from Conroe ISD and annex it to Montgomery ISD.

The hearing opened at 6 p.m., during which petitioner Wisdom Idollet, identifying himself as a resident of Montgomery Trace Section 4, presented the neighborhood’s case. Idollet said the enclave of roughly 80 occupied homes (94 lots by appraisal district records) felt socially and geographically tied to Montgomery, and that about 53% of registered voters in the neighborhood signed the petition. After adjusting for out‑of‑date registrations, Idollet said roughly 63% of current residents supported the petition. He said transportation inefficiencies — Conroe buses driving several extra miles into the neighborhood — and perceived differences in school proximity and performance motivated the request. “This is something that the majority of the people in the area want,” Idollet said.

Conroe ISD general counsel Cara Belaloo told trustees the board’s authority to allow detachment turns on statutory thresholds set in Texas Education Code Chapter 13, which require a comparison of the territory’s taxable property value to the district’s total and a parallel comparison of student counts. After staff reviewed appraisal and enrollment data and applied the Chapter 13 ratio test, Belaloo reported the territory’s taxable‑property‑value ratio did not meet the minimum statutory threshold. “Based on the evidence presented, the taxable property value of the territory proposed to be detached when comparable to the taxable property value of the affected district or districts does not meet the minimum statutory ratio required by chapter 13,” Belaloo said.

District staff and trustees discussed technical details that feed into the ratio calculation. Trustees and counsel noted the statute requires using the enrolled‑student count as of the last day of the preceding school year; district staff used 22 Conroe‑enrolled K–12 students in the neighborhood for that calculation. Counsel also explained the difference between assessed and taxable values and offered figures discussed in the hearing: staff referenced roughly $38 million (taxable) versus a higher assessed amount pre‑exemptions in the appraisal records; the district presented an illustrative per‑household tax impact figure discussed at the hearing (about $568 per year on the average home value used in staff examples).

After discussion, a trustee moved that the board adopt findings of fact and a resolution concluding the petition fails to satisfy the mandatory property‑value ratio requirement in Chapter 13 and that the board decline to proceed with detachment and annexation. The motion received a second and was put to a public hand‑count vote; the board recorded six in favor, zero opposed. The board then closed the hearing portion and proceeded with the remainder of the special meeting agenda.

Trustees and staff noted Montgomery ISD has a transfer policy that some neighborhood families previously used; Conroe staff said Montgomery’s current transfer options are limited and application‑based. Trustees also requested staff provide greater detail about potential debt implications and the mechanics of any statutory debt‑transfer obligations if a detachment were ever otherwise allowed.

The board concluded the hearing portion of its special meeting at roughly 6:34 p.m. and thanked Mr. Idollet for presenting the neighborhood’s case. The board’s action in the public record is a determination that, based on the Chapter 13 ratio analysis presented at the hearing, the petition does not meet the mandatory statutory prerequisites to proceed.