Austin, Texas, district trustees on Wednesday night continued their work on formulating a bond package, but after discussing projects for four hours, they didn't quite land on an exact bond package or amount to put before voters.
They did, however, come to a consensus on including specific projects, with board President Kendall Pace describing their work as mostly done.
Projects in the administration's $989.3 million proposal presented on Monday that trustees agreed to keep include rebuilding several new schools including Brown, Casis, Govalle, Menchaca elementaries and Rosedale School, which educates the district's students with the most severe special needs; and building a new relief school for Blazier Elementary and a new elementary in Southwest Austin.
Trustees also were in consensus to include projects that weren't in the administration's recommendation including:
- moving LASA High School to a minimally renovated Eastside Memorial High School; moving and building the school from ground up was estimated to cost $125 million but this solution appears it will cost $8 million, and
- rebuilding the Austin Learning Center/Old Anderson High School, where trustees appeared to agree the district would move Eastside Memorial.
They also expressed interest in the middle school for the Mueller development, investing in a medical school program at LBJ High School and putting money into revamping the Ann Richards School for Young Women Leaders, but they didn't settle on dollar amounts or exactly what would go into those projects.
After the discussions, trustees' proposals ranged between $946.1 million and $1.02 billion.
Staff and facility consultants will continue to work over the next few days to solidify a plan before Monday, when trustees are slated to vote on calling for a November election, including the price tag.
"We're still going to have some final clean up and horsetrading on Monday," said board President Kendall Pace.
