Despite low voter turnout, Cotulla OK’s $65M bond
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New high school, other facilities on priorities list
Students presently attending elementary school in Cotulla are likely to be among the first to occupy a brand-new high school campus when they reach 9th grade, as voters approved a $65 million bond for the district in last Saturday’s election.
The bond represents the largest amount over which Cotulla ISD has ever asked its voters to decide, and it will mean a property tax hike for local land and mineral rights owners.
Voters turned out in low numbers for Saturday’s election in which two school board trustee seats were also on the ballot.
Cotulla ISD lists 4,253 registered voters, of which only 616 cast ballots in the election altogether. A number of voters did not make decisions in all three of the ballot choices. The tally represents a voter turnout of under 14.5 percent.
The board will welcome a new trustee this month and returns an incumbent who has been re-elected.
In Place 6, the seat held by Raquel Nunez, who did not file for re-election, Rosario “Ross” Morales earned 77.35 percent of the vote with 461 over fellow candidate Crystal V. Sanchez, who received 135 votes. A total of 596 people cast ballots in the Place 6 election.
Morales’ election is for the same seat held by her brother, Roel “Roy” Rodriguez Jr., at the time of his death at age 50 in 2019.
In Place 7, incumbent Trustee Jamie L. Whitwell was returned to office with over 95 percent support, earning 477 votes. Challenger Alfredo Zamora Jr., who filed for election as a write-in candidate, earned 25 votes. A total of 502 ballots were cast in that decision.
Deciding on Proposition A, whether the school district could issue up to $65 million in bond debt for construction and other improvements and purchases, 564 people cast ballots, just shy of 66 percent – 372 people – voting in favor of the project. Opposition votes tallied 192.
The maximum amount of the projected debt, however, is not to be used exclusively for a new high school campus. District administrators have confirmed that a list of priorities for the funds includes new buses and other vehicles for the CISD transportation fleet, refurbishment of the district’s tennis courts, additions and improvements to other facilities, a new district auditorium, and new buildings to house the agricultural science and vocational shop classrooms.
The biggest ticket on the shopping list, however, will be the new high school that is to replace Cotulla’s present facility on the same site. Administrators have indicated that the project takes shape in a bold plan to build the new high school while the present one is still in use. When older classroom buildings are closed for demolition, however, students may temporarily be housed at either of the district’s now-vacant older middle school and elementary school campuses, both of which have been maintained in operational order since closing.
Cotulla ISD cut the ribbon for its newest campus in December 2021, opening the doors to its $24 million Ramirez/Burks Elementary School at a new site between North Baylor and North Main streets.
