Every School, Every Dollar: What the DISD Bond Will Actually Do
The most important infrastructure in Dallas
On May 2nd, Dallas voters decide on $6.2 billion across four propositions: A,B,C & D. (Building and renovation, technology, debt service and swimming pool upgrades).
Here’s a sample ballot so you can practice at home before getting nervous at the big screen.
The 2020 Bond has delivered fantastic results so I think it’s worth voting for.
Here’s what the data shows — in maps.
26 Schools being completely rebuilt:
The bond will fully rebuild 26 campuses. These aren’t cosmetic renovations — these are tear-down-and-start-over projects for buildings that have reached the end of their useful life.
The biggest single allocation: W.W. Samuell High School at $317 million for a complete rebuild.
From dallasnews.com:
Sanders noted that when the district has invested in its buildings in recent years, academic improvement has often followed. He pointed to Pinkston, Roosevelt and South Oak Cliff high schools, all of which have either been rebuilt or undergone major renovations within the past decade. All three moved from D or F to B ratings in the years after they reopened.
10,000 students attend class in portables:
Right now, 79 campuses across the district have students attending class in portable buildings. That’s roughly 10,000 kids.
District 4 has the most with 13 schools using portables. District 6 has 12. These aren’t temporary solutions — some of these portables have been “temporary” for over a decade. This is a map of those schools. The portables will all be gone with the bond.
How much does each of the 223 campuses get? ($0 to $317M)
This is every DISD campus, sized and colored by its bond allocation — from $0 to $317 million. You can see immediately where the money is going and where it isn’t.
The concentrations aren’t random. They follow building age, condition scores, and enrollment patterns.
The Age Problem:
The oldest school in the district is Ben Milam Elementary, built in 1909 — 117 years old.
52 schools were built in the 1950s. 34 more in the 1960s. That’s 86 buildings DISD uses that were built in the 50s and 60s.
Campus School Scores:
According to the TEA, A-rated Dallas ISD schools jumped from 30 in 2024 to 61 in 2025. B-rated schools rose from 72 to 107. F-rated schools dropped from 24 to just 2.
There is a lot more green on this map after the 2020 Bond:
What the FCI Actually Means for Your School:
Dallas ISD hired https://www.dlrgroup.com/ — a national architecture and engineering firm that specializes in K-12 school facilities — to assess every single campus in the district. They walked every building, evaluated roofs, HVAC, plumbing, electrical, structural integrity, and calculated what it would cost to fix everything that’s deferred over the next 10 years.
That number, divided by what it would cost to just build a new school, is the Facility Condition Index.
You can get this information for your school here:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1tnrRCYaDh6rT86DGnMpvKbbLbwkGAAkB,
This data is fascinating. Each campus has a .pdf report. You can go and find your school and download it.
Explaining the map:
- Green (0-15%): Building is in good shape, normal wear
- Yellow (30%): Significant deferred maintenance — roofing, plumbing, mechanical systems need work
- Orange (45-60%): Major systems failing — approaching the point where renovation costs more than replacement
- Red (60%+): Replacement territory — cheaper to tear down and rebuild than to fix
DISD District Trustees on the ballot this year:
Three DISD District Trustees are also on the ballot this year. Here are the locations of their districts (In District 8, Joe Carreón is running unopposed). So we have 2 competitive races. District 2 and 6.
So Go Vote!
Early Voting Locations:
Election Day Locations:
Election Day Voting Locations PDF.
Every map in this article is interactive. Click any school to see its name, allocation, age, condition score, and what the bond will fund. All of this data is public — I just mapped it for us visual people.
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