The Austin school board Monday night called for a $1.05 billion bond package to be placed before voters in November.
The bond projects, rolled into one proposition, total $1.13 billion, but trustees plan to apply $83.8 million in projected leftover bond funds and possible land sales of East Austin schools to reduce the total package amount.
Despite exceeding the $1 billion cap that several trustees said they must stay under, the amount will not trigger a tax rate increase, district officials said.
Trustee Yasmin Wagner said the bond package "will impact every single corner of our district positively. It will touch nearly every single one of our nearly 84,000 students...Every one of our students will benefit from this."
The packed board room was standing room only, with parents, students and community members overflowing into the foyer and outside the building. The majority voiced support for the Ann Richards School for Young Women Leaders, designated to received $70 million for the first modernization phase of the campus, and the northeast middle school in the Mueller development, slated to get $61 million for the construction of an 800-student campus. Several speakers from both groups said they would rally to get the bond passed.
The trustees added back in the new northeast middle school, previously cut from the list, after multiple parents and community members last week petitioned the board for it.
A board also designated for additional leftover bond contingency funds, if any, be applied to the full build of the school meant to relieve overcrowding for Blazier, Cowan and Baranoff schools, and the northwest community.
"This is about the best learning opportunity for all of our students," said Superintendent Paul Cruz.
Among the most contentious projects in the package is the relocation of the Liberal Arts and Science Academy, or LASA, out of LBJ High School and into the former Johnston campus, where Eastside Memorial High is housed. Eastside Memorial also would move to a new $80 million campus on the original L.C. Anderson site. The LASA move allows it to expand to up to 2,000 students.
Trustee Ted Gordon, who for weeks had raised concerns about inequity in the bond package and projects that he said will lead to further segregation of the district, including the LASA move, ultimately voted for it. He said the bond, with the addition of the Mueller middle school, is a step forward in addressing some of the issues of equity and diversity, and socio-economic segregation.
"We've made mistakes as we've gone through this process, but I think in general, honest mistakes," Gordon said. "But more importantly, having lost two initiatives in the last bond...there's an incredible amount of need. Facilities that are crumbling, many that are overcrowded. These are conditions that need relief."
The projects in the bond package for a large part have come from work over the last year on a 25-year comprehensive facilities master plan aimed at modernizing the district and all of its campuses. The plan includes hundreds of recommendations, and district officials said the November bond is the first of several they will need to call to address those needs.
