support also comes from

Faced with more aging campuses, the Houston School Board is considering a November bond election that could help rebuild and repair more facilities. The board will discuss later this week whether to take the district's needs to the voters again.

On Thursday, the HISD board will review the results of a facilities assessment by an outside firm. That could lead to a November bond election to help pay for upgrades and repairs, specifically to some of the district's aging high school campuses.

This is HISD's Jason Spencer:

"Building schools, maintaining schools, it's like doing laundry. You're never done. There's always more that needs to be done. Anyone who owns a home knows that there's always something that needs to be addressed, so that's what this is."

In 2007, Houston voters approved an $805 million bond referendum for campus upgrades and repairs. Those projects are now starting to wind down.

"We've opened 16 new schools since that election. We've got six other new campuses that are under construction. That includes the new Carnegie Vanguard High School that will be opening this fall. And then we have two additional new campuses that are still in the planning stages. All of those projects have come in on budget. We've actually be able to add to the scope of the work that the voters approved then for the same amount of money. The conditions were right. It was a good time to be building and we were able to take advantage of it."

Spencer says if the district board decides to call a bond election, he's not sure what kind of impact it would have on property taxes yet.

Share This
Tweet

Share on Tumblr