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5 The Eanes school board is headed for a special study session July 19 to tackle the heavy question of what to include in a November bond package.
Wary of voter sensitivity to hard economic times, board members decided July 12 to present voters with multiple bond options this fall. District Superintendent Nola Wellman and staff are now in the process of dividing up to $165 million of possible bond items into three bucket lists for voters.
“We could look at starting with a (bond) proposal of $86 million of things we need to have done to keep our district running and a second proposal that includes what I call our elementary package – where we look at the needs of our elementary population – at around $50 million,” board member Ellen Balthazar said at the beginning of a bond study session on July 12. “Then add a third proposition that is extracurricular at about $15 million.”
By the end of the July 12 study session, the board directed the district to divide up the items that administrators felt should remain on a bond list into the three buckets.
“Bucket 1 will include projects that are absolutely critical and time sensitive, using criterion to be determined by Dr. Wellman,” said Paul Stone, board president. “Bucket 3 includes the visionary projects that the district wants and are included in the master plan. Bucket 2 will include all the other projects.”
The next step toward the bond process will be for board members to review the allocations of bond items between bucket lists in Monday’s study session and provide further direction to the district as to what the board deems bond worthy and what it does not. The board will then discuss the methodology for pricing each project, Stone said.
Board member Colleen Jones made it clear during the last board study session that trustees are going to want to see, not only the cost for each item on the list, but the impact on the maintenance and operation budget of the district for each proposed item.
“We need to maintain what’s out there and make sure we are M&O friendly,” Jones said.
Board focus on bond items at this stage of the game has been threefold –would the bond item significantly increase the districts M&O costs, will it save the district money in the long run by using bond money now rather than tax money in the future, and will the item help the district retain it’s prominence in public school rankings.
“How much are taxpayers willing to pay to save money [through lower-interest-rate bonds] and keep the district world class?” Stone asked. “I don’t know that answer. I don’t think anyone knows that. I think that is where a lot of our debate will center in the future.”
“We are in a position where we receive the same amount of money every year [from the state], and it is not enough,” said board member Robert Durkee. “It is not enough to maintain our facilities.”
“We can put certain programs in closets for a time, but eventually you have to say, ‘You know, that’s not what a world-class district does,’ ” Wellman said. “I want to be able to continue to recruit the best people and to have those people want to continue to work and stay here. They have to have the needed tools, or they will leave.”
Stone asked Wellman to have her staff ready the buckets lists of bond items in time for Monday’s study session.
Included in the second bucket of elementary bond items for consideration is the building of a replacement elementary school on the River Hills tract, but just barely. The new school was almost eliminated from further consideration during the July 12 study session, but was kept in the bucket for further investigation after board members Durkee and Jim Strickland said they wanted additional information before nixing it from voter consideration.
“I think we should let the voters decide,” board member Kal Kallison said.
“There will come a time in the next three weeks when we are going to have to vote on exactly what goes onto the bond,” Strickland said. “This isn’t that time.”
Still to be thrashed out for possible inclusion into the third bucket of bond proposal items are new facilities – a student activity center, a dance/cheer/wrestling facility and an outdoor swim center.
Monday’s bond study session is set for 6:30 p.m. in the administration building at 601 Camp Craft Road. The meeting is open to the public. No agenda was posted by press time Tuesday, but board members could schedule open-session time for public comment.
Agendas are posted online in advance of public meetings at https://v3.boardbook.org/Public/PublicHome.aspx?ak=227909.
They have lost their minds.
When pigs get wings, these non-academic bond proposals will fly.
Why is the EISD Superintendent so obstinate about ramming these non-academic bond elections through the EISD Board?
EISD should be focused on improving our students and teachers, not building covered football practice facilities, swim centers, and the like.
We are still a wealthy district, but we don’t have to act like spoiled children.
What are they thinking? The non-academic stuff is dead on arrival with EISD voters.
What Westlake Ranger said….
What board members and parents should really be considering is a new high school. Westlake is so overcrowded it is ridiculous; but since football is far more important then the education of our children it will never happen.
Yes, those WHS class sizes are soaring especially in AP classes. Eanes ISD leadership wants as many students as possible in the AP classes (whether they belong there or not) because the Newsweek ranking of high schools is determined on a formula that takes the number of AP tests taken (doesn’t matter if the students pass the test by the way) divided by the number of graduates. So Eanes ISD axed the gifted classes at WHS and the mid-level classes too and now there are only AP and regular. The district packs the AP classes which yields a higher number of AP tests which then reflects positively on Nola Wellman who is quite obviously more concerned about the district’s ranking than the welfare and education of the students. Meanwhile, many students who are not well-suited for AP classes must take them anyway and the alternative “regular” classes are so easy that a student can sleep through them and get an A. The only “gifted” education in WHS is happening in the athletics department. Apparently the superintendent believes that crowded classes at the high school prepare students for crowded classes at university. Using her logic, we should continue crowding the elementary with transfer students from other districts so the children can get used to crowded classes at the high school. She has stated (more than once) that class size doesn’t really matter. But remember, she isn’t a teacher, she isn’t a student and she isn’t the parent of an Eanes ISD student either. She is just collecting our tax dollars to overcrowd our schoolrooms and push for more athletic facility improvements. Seems to me that we need a new superintendent and this proposed “they’ve-lost-their-minds” bond is proof positive.