The $465 Million Bond Passed. Now the District Is Buying Land on FM 1486.

In May, Magnolia ISD voters approved Proposition A, a $465 million bond, by a comfortable margin: 63.51 percent for, 36.49 percent against. A bond vote is a permission slip, not a building. What's happened since is the district starting to spend it.

The headline project is the district's third high school, priced in the bond at about $304.7 million and slated to open around 2030. To build it, the board is acquiring roughly 100 acres along the east side of FM 1486, the farm road west of town we covered in our last issue as the next place Magnolia grows into. Two new elementary schools ride along in the same package: Elementary No. 10 at about $53.9 million, targeted for 2028, and Elementary No. 11 at about $57.7 million, targeted for 2029.

On May 12 the board approved its construction managers-at-risk, the firms that run the job and hold the budget: Stewart Builders Inc. and B&C Constructors LP. Naming them this early is a sign the district wants shovels moving on its own timeline rather than waiting.

The district says the bond does not raise its tax rate, crediting a growing tax base and paying down old debt ahead of schedule. That's the district's projection, and it rests on the tax base keeping up with the borrowing. It's a fair thing to hold them to as the numbers come in each year. A no-new-rate bond still gets paid; the open question is always whether growth covers it or the rate drifts up later.

Superintendent Jason Bullock and the district's communications office have laid out the timeline publicly, and the full project list is posted on the district's bond site. We'll follow the land closing on FM 1486 and the first ground-breaking as they happen.