by Scott Nishimura, Fort Worth Report
August 8, 2026
Editor’s note: To learn more about how the transcript that informed this report was created, visit Cambridge Artificial Intelligencer.
Keller ISD voters will consider an $837 million bond program Nov. 3, including repairs and renovations to school campuses, a middle school replacement, technology upgrade and natatorium improvements.
Keller trustees voted 5-1 at their July 23 meeting to accept the recommendations of the district’s Citizens Bond Advisory Committee for the bond program. The council’s deadline to formally call the election is Aug. 17. Early voting would be Oct. 19-30.
Voters approved the district’s last bond program — $315 million — in 2019.
The district will present the program to voters in four or five separate propositions, Cory Wilson, the Keller ISD superintendent, told trustees. One trustee said he couldn’t support the program, questioning whether the district needs everything in it.
The citizen’s committee will monitor the bond program if voters approve it, Wilson told trustees. The district won’t sell bonds for projects if enrollment conditions change significantly and render them needless, Wilson said.
“We’re not going to go and just do it just because we have it,” he said.
The district also said proposed projects are focused on repair, not on enrollment growth.
Any project included in the final package required a two-thirds supermajority from committee members.
“It was amazing to bring folks with different opinions from all over our community and come to consensus,” Wilson said.
Implementation of the bond program, if approved, would begin in 2027 and occur over three to five years, the district said.
Citizens Bond Advisory Committee recommendations:
Maintenance repairs and renovations to 34 campuses/facilities
- Roofing, HVAC, plumbing, electrical, code compliance, life safety, building envelope
- New turf at middle school fields and high school baseball and softball fields
- Replacement of Keller Athletic Complex Fieldhouse and site repairs
Keller Middle School replacement
- Modern learning environment
- Safety improvements
- Energy efficiency
- Maintain previously rebuilt portions of building
Technology replacements
- Student and teacher learning devices
- Network infrastructure and campus connectivity
- Cyber security, data center infrastructure, back-up and disaster recovery
- Enterprise resource planning solution
- Classroom, campus and safety technology systems
Natatorium maintenance and equipment replacement
- Site repairs
- Restrooms
- Mechanical and plumbing equipment replacement
- HVAC
The committee met 11 times and conducted facility tours, financial reviews and multiple rounds of mock bond exercises, committee chair Lizzy Johnson said during the July 23 meeting.
“The men, women, community members, parents, students, staff who served on this committee were totally dedicated from start to finish,” Johnson said. “And as many of you know who came to our meetings, they were intense.”
Gavin Sullivan, a Keller Central High School student representative on the committee and senior class secretary, called the experience “truly eye-opening.”
“When I first joined this group, I wasn’t entirely sure what I was getting into, but the experience at our tables was truly eye-opening and beyond that of just a member, but as a person in general,” Sullivan said.
Eric Zarate is a freelance journalist. Scott Nishimura, senior editor of government accountability at the Fort Worth Report, contributed reporting. If you believe anything in this account is inaccurate, please email us at news@fortworthreport.org with “Correction Request” in the subject line.
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