Akins seeking another term on Howe ISD Board of Trustees

Greg Akins

Howe ISD will hold elections for two Board of Trustees seats on May 7 in conjunction with city elections On that ballot that day will be the name Greg Akins who is seeking his fourth term on the board Akins has served as the president for the past three terms, which are three-year terms

Akins says that he's proud of the job the board has done in negotiating with the Municipal Utility Districts (MUD) that have come in

"When the Waltons came in, we negotiated good contracts with them." said Akins. "It's something nobody sees, but it's something I'm proud of. We have a lot of building ls if each one of stricts come in and We'll have ample mentary and middle proud of what they o with the athletic hinks that it was not l to the school so the city ged to do that and still keep our finances in good shape " said Akins "The bottom line is always the bottom line We've spent our dollars where they've needed to be spent and haven't strained the district to do it "

With expected growth coming, Akins sees the district ready to be able to move forward should an influx of new students suddenly infiltrate the ISD. "I think we're in position that if should we need to pass an additional bond package to build additional facilities we'll be able to do that If we have growth, we'll have to do that We're getting close to maximum capacity on our existing facilities "

Akins says that passing a bond is always a challenge if it results in an increased tax rate It depends on enrollment and compensation from the state on how much of a tax increase there will be With 70 percent of the ISD funds coming from the state, only 30 percent are left from local revenues

"We've refinanced our existing bonds to take advantage of record low interest rates " said Akins "We've got ourselves in good position there and we've kept our I&S (Interest & Sinking tax) rate low If we do it in a prudent manner and build facilities that we continued on Page #6