Eanes school board members asked Superintendent Nola Wellman Monday to come up with items for a bond proposal with multiple options, letting voters decide in November where to draw the funding line.

In a special three-hour bond study session, the school board took the first real steps toward specifically identifying which items to include in the upcoming bond package, asking district administration to group bond items into three “buckets” – the first, a group of critical items essential to district maintenance, basic operation and programs; the second, a proposal that includes the building of a new elementary school on the River Hills tract; and a third proposal that would include visionary projects in the district’s master plan such as a student activity center, a swim center and new space for the district wrestling, dance and cheer programs.

“I am in favor of more than one bucket,” said Paul Stone, board president. “Here’s why – we do have some critical needs, things like HVAC and safety issues. There’s no way we can let those things not get fixed.”

“We seem to have a consensus that it is critical that some things in this bond get passed in November,” agreed board member Kal Kallison. “I think we should have a bucket of items that absolutely must be accomplished, things critical to the functioning of the district. We need to be very selective of what goes into that bucket. If there is less in the package, then the cost of that bucket goes down, the perception of the need by the voters goes up and the likelihood of it passing goes up.”

“I would like to hear from the administration what is critical, absolutely critical,” board member Robert Durkee said. “Then I want another group of things that are extremely important. Then the third group would be the things we need to be a world-class district. I’d like to hear that.”

Key to progressing on the bond proposal is defining the term “critical” to the district.

“The definition of critical is going to be important,” Wellman said. “I put safety in there. The safety of students has to be the most important thing. But what is critical and what is just inconvenient? Where is the line?”

Board members also tussled with the question of what programs and items need to be funded for the district to remain as a leader of public school districts in Texas and across the country.

“Defining ‘world-class’ is a slippery slope,” Wellman said. “When you are there, as the district is, you want to continue to recruit top people. But everything becomes a balance of taxpayer wishes.”

“I would just as soon give the taxpayers a chance to say what they want,” board member Jim Strickland said. “It’s never been the history of our district to just get by with the minimum. We have always been very progressive in making sure this district is the best it can be. We have a duty to everybody to keep our district the best we can and support our housing values.”

“Our district has always pushed forward on the things we want,” Durkee said. “That’s why there should be a third category where we can stay on the forefront. Let our taxpayers have a chance to say if they want to do that.”

Specific projects discussed during Monday’s bond meeting were the proposed swim center and a facility to house the district’s dance, cheer and wrestling programs. Both of those projects are now in the district’s third bucket list.

Hanging on by fingernails in the second bucket list is the River Hills replacement elementary school. Board members told Wellman that they want more information on what could be done to eventually lease or sell the Valley View Elementary School facility the new neighborhood-proximate school would replace.

The key phrase for the study session was “M&O neutral.”

Board member Colleen Jones repeatedly hammered home the point that district administrators needs to clearly tell board members and voters what the change in maintenance-and-operating costs would be to the district for each proposed project.

“What we don’t want is anything that puts more M&O pressure on us,” said Kallison. “The value of [each project] and how can we raise additional revenue to cover costs – that’s the dynamic we all have to work with.”

Wellman will provide the additional bond item information to board members during a study session scheduled for July 26. Stone said he hoped the board would reach a decision on what to include in the multiple bond bucket categories by Aug. 3.

Wellman said she would look at each bond project idea from a vantage point – what happens if the district doesn’t do that project.

“What is the element that puts this (project) into the critical list?,” she said. “If we don’t do it, what is the fallout? If that fallout is in programs or M&O costs, then it stays in. If the fallout is that we can make do for four more years, then it is not going to be deemed critical.”

BELOW: Eanes school board member Robert Durkee makes a point about key issues for consideration before finalizing the upcoming bond proposal during a work session Monday night.