Quote:
Originally Posted by Texas Jeff
That pie chart is a little misleading. It makes it look like only a tiny part is for athletics, but it does not include any money spent on schools for athletic renovations.
The "athletics" part is the House Park renovations, which for me would be welcome, but the chart under-represents the total dollars being spent on athletics in the bond.
I am really undecided on this election. Some good stuff and some pet projects. AISD needs to gradually renovate all of their campuses, but does not need all of the "urgent" projects.
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You're right about how they group expenses. Expanding the athletics wing at Bowie, for example, is not considered "athletics" spending. It's called an expansion of the common areas. This phase includes fine arts and athletics. The next phase would include the cafeteria. They consider it expanding the campus as a whole in order to meet standards for a 2,900 capacity.
A third party looked at all the facilities and said they need just over $4 billion to address each problem area. They pared that down to a quarter of what's needed. These are what their metrics show to be the most urgent projects. I wouldn't say they are doing
all of the urgent projects.
Athletics expenditures requested, but not happening in this bond:
- AISD wants to put 1 turf practice field on every HS campus, as well as lights.
- House Park press box and other various renovations not included in proposition
- Burger Stadium renovations and press box
- Nelson Field renovations
- Anderson HS gym expansion
That's just off the top of my head.
I agree with you that AISD needs to renovate all of their campuses. I believe that's their goal over time. The main expenditure in this bond is actually money going to repairing problems at every campus (leaking roof, HVAC, etc.). They want to renovate all schools that need it, but as you said, have to do it gradually. They decided to address the campuses that are either in very bad shape, or are dealing with major overcrowding.