Backers of Robinson Independent School District’s $81.2 million bond proposition say the aging junior high school where Angie King teaches eighth grade needs to be replaced.
King has a front-row view of problems with the campus, which was built as a high school in the 1960s and sprawls over 10 buildings.
The metal gymnasium building next to her classroom interferes with wireless reception, which poses a problem for day-to-day communication and emergency alerts.
“We use our cellphones for a lot of things, and some of the alerts we don’t get, and some messages don’t go through,” King said. “We can’t log in because the reception is so poor.”
The bond referendum on the Nov. 3 ballot would move King and the entire junior high to a brand new facility next to the current school, plus other improvements around Robinson ISD. Early voting continues through Friday in the election.
Referendum backers and school officials say a new junior high would be safer and more efficient and allow the school district to reconfigure its grade levels.
“Our students have to walk outside multiple times during the day,” said Robinson ISD Deputy Superintendent Colette Pledger. “And while we have added fencing around it to make it more secure, it’s still not as secure and safe as a one building junior high facility would be for our students.”
A split electorate
But bond backers face a community that is divided over the proposal, based on its cost and timing. Robinson ISD voters rejected previous bond efforts in 2019 and 2025. They last passed a school bond in 2014 after two previous failed referendums.
The divisions are reflected in this November’s three school board races, each of which has candidates for and against the bond.
In an interview with the Waco Tribune-Herald and in Facebook posts, board candidate Jennifer Crow argued that the cost of the bond is high compared to recent projects at other local districts such as La Vega and Waco ISDs.
School board candidate Garrett Mock told the newspaper the timing is not right for the bond because of high interest rates and the district’s debt load.
The Waco Bridge reached out to candidates opposing the bond but did not receive a response.
Meredith Redding, a Robinson ISD graduate who is running for a school board seat, served on the facility study committee that recommended the bond. She said it’s time to address the junior high campus’ problems, including outdated infrastructure and electrical equipment and a science building that floods.
“Historically we have a hard time passing bond to these communities, which is sad because this community’s backbone is the school district,” Redding said.
What the money buys
In addition to the new junior high school and its furnishings, the bond proposal would provide new elementary school playground equipment and a new high school weight room.
It would demolish the current administration building and move those operations to the current junior high campus. The bus barn would also be torn down.
The bond proposal is more modest than last year’s $95.5 million referendum, which would have moved the junior high to the high school and renovated the junior high as the new high school. It also included a performing arts center and upgraded Career and Technical Education facilities.
That proposal lost by 173 votes, with 53.7% of voters disapproving.
This time the district studied community feedback and opted to focus on a new junior high. Trustees approved the bond proposal during a July board meeting. Trustee Jason Hahn cast the lone dissenting vote, citing financial concerns.
Tax impact
District officials say this bond would increase the tax rate by 14.5 cents per $100 valuation, slightly less than the 15 cents proposed in May 2025. Homeowners now have a $140,000 exemption on their school taxes due to a November 2025 state referendum.
While the state’s exemptions and tax rate compression has lowered taxes overall, those same measures make it harder for the district to fund bond elections, Pledger said in a community town hall on the election last week.
Robinson ISD officials say the average homeowner in Robinson ISD with a market value of $334,836 would see an estimated monthly impact of $23.49, factoring in exemptions.
Robinson ISD’s current tax rate of 91.7 cents is lower than rates in Waco, Lorena and China Spring school districts, according to a Robinson ISD analysis. The proposed new rate of $1.06 would be three cents higher than Waco ISD’s rate but lower than rates in La Vega, Bosqueville and Bruceville-Eddy ISDs.
District officials said they recognize the challenge of passing a tax rate increase.
“We don’t have a lot of business and industry that can absorb that tax impact, and so a lot of the tax impact is on our taxpayers, our local homeowners that live in our community,” Pledger said.
On the positive side, new industrial developments including an Amazon distribution station and a Walmart milk processing plant are expected to boost the district’s tax base. The milk plant was valued at $155 million on Jan. 1, before it was completed.
Grade configurations
A new junior high would provide additional space for a grade realignment. It would house sixth through eighth grade and add capacity for nearly 100 more students than the current junior high. Under the plan, first-graders would move from the overcrowded primary school to the elementary school.
The bond will also address potential growth from new housing developments in Robinson. A demographic study from Zonda Education predicts steady incremental growth in coming years. Enrollment has decreased by 4% since 2016 but has remained around 2,400 in the last six years, according to The Texas Tribune’s Schools Explorer.
If the bond fails, the district will reevaluate whether it can proceed with the grade realignment.
“If we follow the demographic study out several years, it could be a problem,” Pledger said. “Even if a bond is passed now, it’s going to take a couple of years for the building to be built before you would actually transition all of those things. And so, we should have to keep watching year over year to see if this one doesn’t pass.”
Sarah Taylor, 39, walks her dog around her neighborhood, often passing the junior high. She moved to the district in early 2024 because she wanted to send her future kids to the district. However, the potential safety risk of multiple entry points at the junior high is a concern.
“We moved to Robinson because it’s a safe neighborhood,” said Taylor, who was one of a handful of people at the town hall meeting. “It’s a safe place. We wanted a safe place to raise our kids.”
Taylor supported the 2025 bond and plans to vote yes for this one. She worries that if it fails, crowding will continue at the primary school and require more portable buildings.
“There’s a lot of things that my tax dollars could go towards, but I’ll never complain about my tax dollars going towards education,” Taylor said. “I trust the school district.”
