The Alamo Colleges District is asking voters to approve a $987 million bond for “districtwide improvements” in the May 3 municipal election.
That’s more than double the district’s last ask in 2017, when 66.8% of voters supported a $450 million bond to boost programs in career fields like nursing, cybersecurity, tourism, hospitality and culinary arts.
This time around, areas of investment include engineering, health care, IT and cybersecurity, emerging technologies, applied technology and construction trades, automotive technology and transportation.
In a press release Tuesday, the district’s board of trustees said the bond money is needed to address the “growing educational and workforce demands” in a county that’s expected to hit 2.5 million residents by 2040.
Last year, the fall semester marked an all-time high in student enrollment for the Alamo Colleges district, with more than 79,000 students. If current enrollment trends continue, the district expects to hit 100,000 students within five years.
“The issue in front of us now is capacity planning,” Thomas Cleary, vice chancellor for planning, performance, accreditation and information systems, said of the district’s bond planning last month.
Some members of the district’s Citizen’s Bond Advisory Committee, however, have expressed concern about potential sticker shock when voters see the $987 million bond.
The city of San Antonio, for comparison, just passed the $1 billion threshold in its 2022 bond.
“We’ve got to get ahead of the community when they hear almost $1 billion, and we’ve never done that before,” said Ken Lowe, District 2 representative on the Citizen’s Bond Advisory Committee. “I think from a committee standpoint, we need to have the right narrative out in the community.”
