Questions, answered straight

Two Manor ISD propositions. Proposition A ($391.5 million) fixes and modernizes schools: repairs at every campus, renovations at Decker and Blake Manor elementaries, a rebuild of Bluebonnet Trail Elementary, expansions at Manor New Tech High and Manor High, safety and security systems, and seatbelt-equipped buses. Proposition B ($8.5 million) replaces outdated student and teacher devices. One Manor urges you to vote FOR both.

Texas law requires school districts to put certain items, including technology devices, before voters as separate propositions. That's why the devices are Prop B. Everything else in the plan is in Prop A.

Early voting runs October 19–30, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., including the weekend, at the Manor ISD Administration Building (10335 US-290, Manor) and other Travis County early voting locations. Election Day is Tuesday, November 3, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Travis County lets you vote at any polling location in the county. The last day to register is October 5.

A political action committee of Manor ISD parents, teachers, grandparents, small-business owners and neighbors formed in 2026 to pass Props A and B. We are not the school district and we don't use district money or staff. By law the district can only share facts, so neighbors have to make the case. Our contributions and spending are reported publicly under Texas campaign finance law.

Here's the straight version. If both propositions pass, the tax rate goes up 3.85 cents per $100 of value. But the rate is only half the math. The other half is your home's value, and the average home value in Manor ISD fell this year, from about $352,000 to about $332,000, while the state raised the homestead exemption. Put it together and Manor ISD's estimate is that the average homeowner's school tax bill still comes out about $9.56 a month lower than last year's, with the bond's full rate increase included. Your own bill depends on your appraised value and exemptions, which you can check at traviscad.org.

Since 2019, Texas law has required those exact words on every school bond proposition in the state, whether your bill goes up, down or stays the same. It's boilerplate, not a forecast. The forecast is the district's estimate above: even with the bond's full rate increase, the average homeowner's school tax bill comes out about $9.56 a month lower than last year's. Last year's plan promised no rate increase and still failed. This year the district is showing its math: here is the rate, here is the average bill, and the average bill still comes out lower than last year's. And if you're 65 or older with your exemption on file, your school taxes are frozen regardless.

Nothing. If you've filed for and received the Over-65 (or disabled) homestead exemption, your school taxes are frozen at the ceiling set when you qualified, and no bond can raise them unless you make major improvements to your home. The state also raised the exemption for homeowners 65+ to $200,000, so if your home is assessed at $200,000 or less you now owe no school district taxes. If you're 65 and haven't filed, file now: search your address at traviscad.org/propertysearch or call 512-834-9317.

Because Texas gives school districts no state money to build or renovate schools. Bonds are the only tool districts have for big, one-time projects like roofs, wings and bus fleets, and bond funds legally cannot be spent on salaries or day-to-day operations. Fixing things now also protects classrooms: every emergency A/C or roof repair the district makes today comes out of the same operating budget that pays teachers.

The problems stay and they get worse. Bluebonnet Trail keeps deteriorating. Buses without seatbelts keep running routes, and the 2029 seatbelt law arrives whether or not the district can afford to meet it. Ninth graders keep shuttling four miles to Manor High. Aging air conditioners keep failing in August. And after the 2025 bond failed, Manor ISD said it would have to cut student services to cover maintenance. A "no" vote doesn't make the repairs go away; it moves them into the classroom.

Three ways. State law restricts bond proceeds to the purposes voters approved on the ballot, so the district can't redirect them to salaries or anything else. Manor ISD will create a Bond Oversight Committee that meets in public to review project budgets, spending, timelines and progress. And every bond-related expenditure that needs board approval is voted on in public board meetings. The district's track record helps: since 2019 it has refinanced and paid down debt early, saving taxpayers about $41 million in interest, and the Texas Education Agency rates its financial management in the top tiers. One Manor will keep asking these questions after Election Day, too.

It wasn't built, and voters deserve the straight version. The 2019 bond included a performing arts center. Then COVID-era supply-chain disruptions, labor shortages and inflation drove construction costs far above the original estimates, as they did for districts across the country. Manor ISD reviewed every 2019 project and put the available money into the highest-priority instructional, safety and capacity needs first (the multipurpose facilities at both high schools, Manor Rise Academy, Wildhorse Elementary, the Transportation Center, and playground and shade structures) rather than build the arts center with money that wasn't there. That's a fair reason to want stronger oversight, which is why the Bond Oversight Committee and public reporting are part of the 2026 plan.

No, and we want to be precise about it. In 2025, Proposition C was a standalone performing arts facility. The 2026 plan includes a multipurpose classroom and fine arts center on the Manor High campus, designed as instructional space: today, band, choir and theatre share one classroom when enrollment calls for two, and students have no stage. Because it's a classroom facility on an existing campus, it's part of Prop A alongside the new academic wing. It also gives students a place to perform and gives the community a venue. You can see exactly what it is and decide for yourself.

Housing development around Wildhorse slowed after the 2019 bond and elementary enrollment stayed flat, so there weren't enough students in that attendance zone to open it as an elementary. Rather than leave a new building empty, the district put it to work housing Manor Excel Academy, Manor Alternative Placement and the Child Development Center. This bond funds the move that finally lets Wildhorse open as the elementary school it was built to be, in 2028–2030, when nearby Lagos Elementary (96% full today, projected 152%) will need the relief.

Academics and buildings aren't budgets you can trade between. By law, not one dollar of this bond can go to salaries or programs, and the operating budget can't fund a new roof. What the bond does is stop facilities from eating into instruction: when an A/C unit fails in August, students lose learning time and the district pays repair crews out of the same fund that pays teachers. Meanwhile, Manor ISD students are producing real results: 83 Manor High seniors in the Class of 2026 earned associate degrees, the most of any single high school in Central Texas, and the district holds state and national distinctions in music, visual arts and theatre.

A Citizens Facility Advisory Committee of parents, educators, business owners and community members, neighbors appointed by the Board of Trustees who live or own property in the district, working with district staff. Twenty-one members recommended the 2025 package. After voters said no, the committee reconvened in April 2026, met on May 19 and June 9 to review updated 2025–26 enrollment, demographic and facility-condition data, walked campuses including Bluebonnet Trail Elementary, and re-prioritized every project. It presented its recommendations to the Board on June 15, 2026, and the Board voted unanimously on August 10, 2026 to put this plan on the ballot. The 2026 committee, as listed by Manor ISD: Charmaine Albritton, Michelle Anderson, Neomia Bailey, Eric Cepeda, Sean Donnelly, Shanetra Fowler, Janie Guerrero, Martha Juarez, Dr. Jayme Mathias, Juanita Medina, Jeshua Medrano, Luis Montes, Keylan Morgan, Sam Samaripa, Jeremy Sheard, Nathaniel Thayer, Marlin Thomas and Jackie Williamson. Their meeting slides are posted on the district's FAC 2026 page.

Both, honestly. Manor ISD serves about 10,000 students on 15 campuses. Enrollment grew 325 students from 2023–24 to 2024–25, dipped in 2025–26 as it did in many Central Texas districts, and is projected to grow by more than 1,700 students over the next decade, with 11 subdivisions under construction and 23 more in planning. But most of this bond isn't about growth at all. It's fixing buildings we already have. The two expansions are at high schools that are already near capacity: Manor New Tech is 85% full, and Manor High's ninth graders are on a separate campus four miles away.

Every campus gets its share of the district-wide repairs (roofs, HVAC, electrical, plumbing, lighting, locks and access control), the safety and security systems, the seatbelt-equipped buses, and Prop B devices. Bluebonnet Trail, Decker, Blake Manor, Manor New Tech High, Manor High and the 9th Grade Center have major projects of their own. Use the campus finder on our "What we're fixing" page to see your school.

Because the problems are in the bones of the building. Bluebonnet Trail was built in 1994 and hasn't had a major renovation since 2008. Assessments found roof leaks, foundation deterioration, aging HVAC and plumbing, accessibility gaps and recurring system failures. When the foundation and every major system need replacing at once, a new building on the same campus is the sounder long-term choice. And the school is filling up, at 79% today and 83% within five years.

Audio-enhanced panic-alert systems at elementary schools, perimeter fencing, expanded camera coverage, lockdown buttons, enhanced badge systems, door relocations, card-reader access controls, police radios and equipment, network upgrades, intercom and emergency communications, and PA systems. The list came from a fall 2024 parent survey and the facility assessment. The state's new school-safety funding covers only a small fraction of it; the bond covers the rest.

More than 4,800 Manor ISD students, nearly half the district, ride a bus every day, covering 866,700 miles a year. The average bus is 6 to 10 years old with 174,000 miles on it; some are 27 years old, in a business where most districts get 10 to 15 years out of a bus. 39% of the fleet isn't fully equipped with seatbelts, and state law requires every bus to have them by 2029. 56 buses, 64% of the fleet, are approaching or past their useful life.

It replaces outdated student and teacher devices. Manor ISD runs a 1-to-1 program for grades 2–12 with 10,696 devices; 5,861 are 7 to 10 years old and can't meet current software and security requirements. Prop B replaces them so the program keeps working, with fewer failures and better cybersecurity. State law requires technology to be a separate proposition, so please vote FOR Prop B as well as Prop A.

Check your status or register at votetravis.gov or by calling the Travis County Elections Division at (512) 238-8683. The last day to register for this election is Monday, October 5, 2026.

In Texas you can vote by mail if you're 65 or older, disabled, expect to be out of the county during early voting and Election Day, expect to give birth within three weeks of Election Day, or are confined in jail but otherwise eligible. Your application must reach the Travis County Clerk by 5 p.m. on Friday, October 23. Mail it to Travis County Clerk, PO Box 149325, Austin, TX 78714, or deliver it to the Elections Division at 5501 Airport Boulevard, Austin, TX 78751.

Toward the end, after the statewide and county races. Look for "Manor Independent School District Proposition A" and "Proposition B" and mark FOR on both. The November 2026 ballot is long; please don't stop before you get there.

Yes, if you live inside the Manor ISD boundaries, which include parts of Austin and unincorporated Travis County as well as the City of Manor. You vote on Props A and B, and your school taxes go to Manor ISD. Your voter registration card lists your school district.