Here’s your Keller recap for the week.

All five bond propositions failed

Keller ISD’s $828 million bond lost on every one of its five parts Tuesday, and it wasn’t close. These are unofficial results with all 223 Tarrant County vote centers reporting; the official canvass hasn’t happened yet.

Prop A alone was 91% of the package. Here’s the part that matters for your kid’s campus: the district told voters before the election that if the propositions failed, the same repairs would have to come out of the operating budget, which is the fund that pays salaries and programs. Superintendent Cory Wilson made that case directly. The district’s statement after the results said the outcome “does not change the facility, infrastructure, and operational needs identified through the district’s planning process,” and that it will “evaluate how best to address those needs moving forward.” No next step, timeline or second election has been announced. KISD’s last approved bond was $315 million in 2019, and the district already carries about $861 million in existing debt.🏗️ WHAT'S GETTING BUILT

Six days later, still no ruling on the data center

Judge Kimberly Fitzpatrick heard the Circle T case last Friday and nothing has been reported since. No dismissal, no injunction, no settlement, no continuance. The question in front of her was whether the Marshall Ridge homeowners and the City of Keller have standing to sue Westlake at all, and Westlake has said it will wait for that ruling before voting on the development agreement. In the meantime, state filings reported by the Dallas Morning News show the developer preparing to build: a December construction start, June 2027 completion, an $83 million building. The project does not have the city permits it needs to build. If you hear someone say the case was thrown out or that the project got approved, neither has been reported anywhere.

Five zoning cases went before the commission Tuesday

Planning and Zoning heard five public hearings October 27: a rezoning for Garages of America on 5.565 acres along North Pate Orr Road, a permit for a roughly 6,620-square-foot detached accessory building at 1432 Mount Gilead Road, a request from Elite Care Assisted Living at 553 Big Bend Drive to go from six residents to eight, an indoor entertainment venue called The Persimmon Club in a proposed 6,000-square-foot building near Davis Boulevard and Bear Creek Parkway, and a spa use for Signature Barber at 241 S. Main in Old Town. None of the commission’s votes have posted yet. Anything recommended there goes to Council next.

Three new trustees, and the closest race was 457 votes

Rachel Weatherington won Place 4 with 70.18% over Geramie Parrish. Andrew Walsh won Place 5 with 40.69%, beating incumbent Chris Coker’s 39.86% by 457 votes, with Colin Hodges at 19.45%. Barbara Brewer won the Place 6 special election with 51.53% over Tommie Johnson’s 48.47%. There’s no runoff in KISD races; a plurality wins. All three are first-time trustees.

Worth sitting with: Weatherington and Walsh both supported all five propositions, Brewer backed the full package, and Coker was the lone trustee who voted against calling the election in August. Voters rejected the bond and replaced the board with people who wanted it. Brewer told Community Impact that any future bond for the same purpose has to be “smaller, more itemized and more detailed.” Weatherington said she thinks voters want the board past the district-split fight and focused on students and staff.

Every full-time employee is getting $750

At the October 29 meeting, five days before the election, trustees voted 6-0 to approve a one-time $750 payment to all full-time district employees, paid in November from general operating funds. The same meeting approved state-required improvement plans for Friendship and Heritage elementary schools and the 2026 property tax roll. Trustees also seated a Citizens Bond Oversight Committee, which was created to oversee bond spending if a proposition passed. None did.

The district wants new school boundaries settled by winter break

At the October 29 meeting, Superintendent Cory Wilson said Keller ISD intends to finalize its plan for closing Bear Creek, Parkwood Hill and Trinity Meadows intermediate schools before students leave for winter break. Boundary discussions with trustees begin later this month, and the district says preliminary maps, transfer processes and staffing estimates will be public in late November or early December. If you have a kid at one of those three campuses, or anywhere in a feeder pattern that shifts, that’s the window to pay attention.

Prop C’s defeat leaves the natatorium repairs unfunded

Proposition C would have put $8,867,510 toward the natatorium’s water filtration, dehumidifiers and HVAC. It got 40.92% support. The pool has been closed since May 12, the district bought the land under it from the city in August for up to $675,000, and the repair money voters just declined would have come on top of the $2.1 million already moved from fund balance. The district hasn’t said what it does now. Before you plan around it, call the natatorium at 817-744-1353, and don’t trust the online calendar; it’s currently displaying last year’s schedule.

Council looked at speeding up the Old Town restroom and decided not to

In the work session after Tuesday’s meeting, Public Works Director Alonzo Liñán offered Council a way to pull the Bates Street restroom project forward from fiscal 2027-28 into this budget year, either through a budget amendment or by reshuffling other capital projects. The consensus was to leave it where it is. The prefabricated building would run $475,000 to $535,000, with $500,000 to $600,000 budgeted for the whole project, and the tentative spot is next to Bates Street Park, though Liñán said other locations are possible with utility relocations. He said the goal is to have it running around the time Elm Street construction wraps. Council still has to approve a purchase contract when it gets there. Separately and not the same thing: the Keller Depot redevelopment at 128 Bates Street includes publicly accessible restrooms the city agreed to help fund in September.

Thirteen days and still no ruling on the data center

Judge Kimberly Fitzpatrick heard arguments October 23 on whether the Marshall Ridge homeowners and the City of Keller have standing to sue Westlake at all. Nothing has been reported since, by anyone. Westlake said before the hearing that it expected the whole dispute resolved that day. The standing question matters more than it sounds: if the plaintiffs lose it, the case ends regardless of the zoning arguments underneath it. Keller joined the lawsuit as an intervenor, so the city’s own position rides on it too.

Hadestown at Keller High, final weekend
Keller Theatre’s fall musical closes this weekend at the Keller High Fine Arts Center, 601 Pate Orr Road North. The run goes through November 8. Tickets are $21.68 and sold only through SimpleTix. Check the site for exact curtain times, since showtimes vary. It’s a retelling of the Orpheus myth with mature themes, better suited to teenagers than small kids.

Veterans Day is Wednesday, November 11. Check with your student’s campus this week, since Keller ISD schools often hold their own programs and those get announced campus by campus rather than district-wide.

No farmers market this weekend. The Keller Farmers Market’s regular season ended October 31, and the only November date on its schedule is the Thanksgiving Market on Saturday, November 21, from 1 to 5 p.m.

That’s your Keller week. See you next Friday.