A group of appointed residents charged with helping the Alamo Colleges District to develop a nearly $1 billion bond package for a May 2025 election has begun discussions on the community college district’s long-term needs.
The Citizen’s Bond Advisory Committee met for the first time on Dec. 9 to address a potential $987 million bond, which district officials said could address the needs of a growing population.
Capacity building
According to district officials, fall 2024 marked an all-time student enrollment achievement for the entire district, with more than 79,000 students.
“It’s the best possible scenario for Alamo Colleges because we have more students and those students are taking more hours,” said Thomas Cleary, vice chancellor for planning, performance, accreditation and information systems.
District leaders said they want to capitalize on specific enrollment increases that Alamo Colleges has been seeing since fall 2023, including a 17.6% rise in the number of students enrolling in the district straight from high school and a 13.1% rise in the number of students transferring into the district.
Cleary said if current enrollment trends continue to move upward, the district should achieve 100,000 students within five years. “So, the issue in front of us now is capacity planning.”
He pointed to Texas Association of Counties projections that by 2040, Bexar County’s population will surpass 2.5 million, with the seven surrounding counties served by the district seeing their populations increase anywhere between 4.1% to 95.4% from 2020 to 2040.
Workforce development
“Your recommendations are two-pronged. One is looking at the growth that we’ve had in particular over the last five years,” district Chancellor Mike Flores told the advisory committee. “The other would look at growth in programs, with an intentional focus on workforce programs.”
Flores said it is important that Alamo Colleges maintain momentum from the district’s $450 million bond, which voters approved in 2017.
District officials said the 2017 bond focused on growing the district’s support for students in career fields such as nursing, cybersecurity, tourism, hospitality and culinary arts.
“This is about how we can build on the foundation over the last few years and extend that focus into the future,” Flores said.
Priscilla Camacho, chief legislative, industry and external relations officer, said the district seeks to enhance and align educational workforce opportunities with prevailing growth industries.
She added that five-year growth projections are high in information technology/cybersecurity, aerospace/defense and in advanced manufacturing and logistics.
Camacho also said employment data shows that more than 235,000 locals work in life sciences/health and in finance and professional services combined.
“We definitely already have programs aligned to these industries, and that’s what’s helping us meet that growth demand and the projected growth,” Camacho said.
‘Financially and fiscally sound’
Lisa Mazure, vice chancellor for finance and fiscal services, said Alamo Colleges has a AAA bond rating from two bond rating companies, meaning the district has sound financial standing to float another bond if voters support it.
Mazure said because of increasing property tax revenue, the district does not intend to raise its property tax rate in order to finance a new bond.
“We have tremendous ability to be financially and fiscally sound and do this bond without asking the taxpayers for any type of increase,” she added.
Committee members said they appreciated the presentations from district administrators, but expressed concern that voters might balk at a bond totaling nearly $1 billion.
“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 Citizens Bond Advisory Committee. “I think from a committee standpoint, we need to have the right narrative out in the community.”
District administrators responded that Lowe’s concern is one of many matters that can be addressed in follow-up committee meetings, which will conclude Jan. 6, with bond recommendations forwarded to the Alamo Colleges District board by Jan. 9.
District trustees are due to discuss recommendations Jan. 14 or 21, and call a May 3 election by the Feb. 4 board meeting.