By Robert Jaklich
Guest Commentary

Voters in the Harlandale Independent School District approved a tax rate election to increase their school property taxes by 13 cents on Nov. 4.

By doing so, the Harlandale ISD will now receive $1.5 million from our local tax effort and an additional $6.7 million from the state, for a total of $8.2 million in additional revenue.

Not only do we receive this additional money for this school year, we will continue to receive this additional $8.2 million every year after. This successful tax election is truly a momentous occasion and could not have occurred without the assistance of the entire Harlandale community.

The total unofficial results indicate that 65 percent of the Harlandale ISD voters cast their ballot in favor of the tax increase. This is a tremendous support of faith from our community.

Harlandale ISD now has an even greater responsibility to uphold our community's belief in us, and to continue to cultivate a partnership in education. I would like to thank our Harlandale ISD board of trustees for their vision and commitment to making the right decisions for all students.

I would also like to thank you, our parents, and community members for believing in the importance of providing excellent educational opportunities for all of our children.

It is our firm belief that to be a successful school district, we must have trust, communication and integrity. And we must continue to demonstrate these qualities one day at a time. We are fully aware that to exceed the expectations of others, we must first exceed our own expectations. We are ready to address our future challenges with vigor, excitement and high expectations. We look forward to achieving more. We are committed to making our community a better place, one student at a time. We are Harlandale.