Bond: Don’t Stay Home
To the Editor:
La Grange ISD voters are right to be wary of the eyepopping $159 million cost in principal and interest of the single proposal in the LGISD bond, catering as it does to expensive wants over fundamental needs. Additionally, voters should be aware that they are being brazenly manipulated toward a yes vote. The administration and architects designing the “improvements” have also put much effort into designing the bond election process they hope will pay for the facility.
From the start, the idea has been to package the whopping cost into a single proposition. Said the architects to the attendees at the January 12 trustees’ special meeting: “…I think it’s really a good thing too that you can put all that in one proposition. We’ve had a couple of districts try to split out stuff and sometimes they end up voting for what they perceive as the money saver or the lesser of two expenses or two evils or however they want to view it, you know. But putting something like that in all one prop[osition] I think is going to help you.” Thus, the remaking of the covered playing field as an “academic” facility that avoids the need to present it separately.
What about that Facility Committee that “chose” to lump it all into one proposal? I was on that committee. It’s a far cry from the 2017 bond committee, that met multiple times over a longer period, functioned in “workshop style,” and filled notebooks with analyses and recommendations. This year’s committee was hand-picked to be heavy with boosters. Said an LGISD administrator to the trustees and others at the 12/1/25 meeting: “…we would ask you all, you know, to submit some names of some power people in town to be included on our bond committee as well. Like, who do you think— I’ve already asked the principals, you know, for some names of parents that are in a wide range of activities that, you know, are going to try to support, you know, the bond.”
The Facilities Committee in my opinion was stage-managed into a preordained conclusion in two short meetings about a week apart. Members were presented with a single collection of all of the projects -- $90-plus million, no advice on smaller logical groupings of projects – and also a $2 million “athletics only” short list. Result: that hand-picked “community committee” with the help of trustees, architects and boosters “working the room,” was led by a booster in an emotionally fueled finale to the rushed “vote” to “do it all for the children.” Literally the only work product of the committee was to reject that $2 million athletics- only separate proposal.
Finally, consider the bond “flyer.” On one side is a list of all the projects, by design without any information as to the cost breakdown. If you want numbers, flip the flyer over, where you’ll find extensive numbers and graphs designed to imply that the bond really won’t cost you that much. And one message is crystal clear, if not entirely truthful: if you are 65 or over, you won’t pay a penny; don’t worry about voting, you can do something else that Saturday. If you won’t take my word for it, listen to an LGISD administrator speaking at the 12/10/25 meeting: “… The other big key is our 65 and older need to be educated big time on how this is not going to affect their taxes... You don’t want that 65 and older bunch to come out and make a difference… we don’t want that population group to sit there and say, hey, we don’t want this. We want them to know, hey, your taxes aren’t going to be increased.”
LGISD taxpayers, you are not respected as stakeholders in this district; you are cash cows to be manipulated into voting yes, or at least, they hope, not voting. Please don’t stay home for this one. Vote, and vote NO. Early voting begins April 20 at the elections office, and the election is Saturday, May 2 at La Grange City Hall.
Jeff Parker La Grange
A note about letters to the editor regarding the LGISD Bond election: