As the Frisco ISD Bond Planning Committee continues its work, members are taking a closer look at the District’s financial outlook and options for building a package that aligns with community priorities.
The committee held its fourth meeting on Tuesday, just a few days after members toured three campuses — Frisco High and Shawnee Trail Elementary, which have identified needs addressed through a refresh, and Christie Elementary, which underwent a refresh in the 2018 bond.
After the tour, Superintendent Dr. Todd Fouche noted how voters statewide overwhelmingly rejected school bonds on Election Day and said that the District is working to identify voters’ concerns with those packages.
“Trust me when I say our team on Wednesday started digging into everything we could about this bond election, about what it could mean and means going forward,” Dr. Fouche said. “I don’t know that we have all those answers yet, but what it says to me is, we need to be careful on how big this package is.”
While the individual projects presented total over $1 billion, Frisco ISD does not intend to bring a $1 billion bond package to voters.
To that end, at its meeting Tuesday, committee members began considering the financial implications of a 2027 bond, including impacts to the I&S tax rate and the cost that surveyed community members said they would be willing to support.
Kimberly Smith, deputy superintendent for business and operations, urged members to speak up, ask questions and think critically about everything they’d heard.
“We’ve presented you with potential bond projects over the past several weeks. It is now up to you to determine what’s important to this community,” Smith said. “You are the voice of the community in this room. We want you to put something together that you believe reflects the voice of the community — we don’t want to end this process with something that you can’t get behind.”
Members who took part in campus tours were urged to share their thoughts and photos with members who weren’t there. That way, everyone would be working from the same information as they build a bond together.
On the tour, members took pictures of broken equipment, cracked tiles, foundation issues, stained ceilings and mismatched flooring at Frisco High and Shawnee Trail, asking questions about how a refresh could improve the look of the campus.
Existing debt and tax implications
To open the financial review, Smith outlined the District’s efforts to map a plan for long-term health, reiterating a few points outlined during the Board Sustainability Workshop the day before.
Pressures from declining enrollment and rising costs are impacting the District’s maintenance and operations budget, the funds that pay teachers and staff and keep programs running. Smith said because of these pressures and expected future enrollment declines, shifting capital projects to the M&O budget rather than bonds would require cuts to the day-to-day budget.
“We are living on a fixed income,” Smith said. “As costs go up, none of our revenue that we bring in is indexed to inflation, so we feel squeezed. We are at a point right now where anything that we add to the operating budget means a cut somewhere else from the operating budget.”
Existing debt: Frisco ISD currently has approximately $1.93 billion in outstanding debt, down $365 million over the past three years. The District's debt-to-taxable-value ratio is 2.89%, which Smith said compares to 7% when she began in FISD 10 years ago.
Tax rate: The District's current $0.27 debt tax rate could support approximately $400 million in additional debt under current assumptions. While a larger bond program could require a tax increase, that would not occur immediately. Depending on factors such as the amount and timing of bonds, property value growth and interest rates, an increase may not be needed for another three to four years, if at all.
Community survey: The committee was presented findings from a recent survey that polled a representative sample of community voters, which showed varying levels of community support for potential bond amounts, with the most support between $400 million and $600 million. The 2024 bond that voters did not pass totaled over $1 billion.
These figures provide another point of reference as committee members consider the scope and priorities of a potential proposal.
Building the bond
Following the financial presentation, committee members received an introduction to the District's Build a Bond planning tool.
Using the tool, members can select each project they believe is a priority, choose a full or reduced project scope, and explore the estimated financial implications of these choices. Increasing the bond length from three to five years increases the package total, while reducing the scope or eliminating projects lowers it.
Throughout the process, District leaders have reiterated that the projects presented so far were just a starting point — only the committee, not District administration, can determine a final bond package to bring to the Board.
“We intentionally did not add up everything that we were going to present to you, because we didn’t want to have any preconceived notions of what a bond package might look like,” Smith said.
What’s next
Committee members will use the Build a Bond tool to develop their own scenarios before coming together Tuesday, Nov. 17 to discuss priorities and work toward a package that reflects the needs and priorities of the community. The committee will then vote on a package to present to the Board of Trustees for consideration in late January or February.
Learn more about the Frisco ISD Bond Planning Committee and follow the process.
Resources
Bond Planning Committee updates
Nov. 11 meeting: Financial guardrails and bond planning discussion
Nov. 3 meeting: Facility maintenance and cosmetology program
Oct. 27 meeting: Fine arts and athletics equipment, technology and buses
Oct. 20 meeting: Introduction and District background
Transparency tools
Capital Projects table, updated October 2026: Category, Project, Amount Spent and Remaining Balance
Your Frisco ISD Taxes at Work: A dollar-by-dollar breakdown of where your taxes are going
Sustainability Plan
November 2026 update: Demographics, facility planning and transfer programs. Story | Presentation | Video
June 2026 update: Expense cuts, new revenue and campus utilization. Story | Presentation | Video
January 2026 update: Cost savings and resource realignment. Story | Presentation | Video
October 2025 update: Demographics, facility planning and academic programs. Article | Presentation | Video