ANDREWS Voters on May 6 will decide on a $157 million bond to renovate and update facilities in Andrews ISD.
Superintendent Bobby Azam said there are three propositions and people can vote yes or no on each one.
Proposition A is $109,000,000 and includes remodeling the high school’s main building; the high school science wing; the high school administration wing; high school choir and band halls; high school career and technical education building for industrial arts, cosmetology and barber spaces; additional Performance Center locker rooms; revised parking; revised campus entry; and fencing demolition.
Proposition B is for $36 million and includes athletic upgrades.
Proposition C for $12,000,000 includes Mustang Bowl renovations.
Early voting runs from April 24 through May 2, Azam said. Taxes are frozen for people 65 and older.
Andrews ISD’s total tax rate is $1 per $100 valuation. That includes 86 cents for maintenance and operations and 14 cents for debt service. If the bond passes, the total tax rate would be $1.06 per $100 valuation.
The 14 cents is due to a 2018 bond. Once it is paid off in 2035, that 14 cents would come off the tax rate.
“Both the ‘11 and the ‘18 (bonds) were short-term, so you have a little bit higher rate to pay, but you pay them off sooner,” Azam said.
The high school was built in 1960 on an open plan concept and the funds would allow the district to completely renovate the inside and add 20 to 25 classrooms, a choir and band hall, a new career and technical education building, a locker room and new administration wing. Azam said the high school was ahead of its time when it was built because it had air conditioning, carpet and an indoor pool, which was a big deal nationwide.
Azam said the new classrooms will allow teachers in the same subject area to be grouped together which will encourage collaboration.
“We’ll obviously have to redo parking and we’ll have to do some demolition,” he added.
The district will be able to do all the work without interrupting school.
Since the high school has its football stadium, gym, pool and concert hall next to the high school, it was decided not to tear down the existing structure and build somewhere else. the plumbing underneath the building is in tunnels and easy to access.
“The best scenario for us is just to rebuild the school inside the current structure,” Azam said.
The high school has 1,200 students and the building currently encloses just over 300,000 square feet. With the improvements it would be about 375,000 square feet.
“Right now the building is safe. What we found was the way that building was built was an open concept. It was built at a time when no one worried about people coming in. Years ago, we realized that was a problem so we put in glass walls and try to encapsulate that front foyer so when people do come in they have to check in there and they just don’t have unrestricted access to the school. It gives us an ability with a front foyer to have people that can access the offices they need to, but they also don’t get to walk straight into the school. After hours, the offices will all be locked and that same front entryway will enable them to get them to get to our other gyms in the high school. The building is already secure, but this will just further add a security factor to the high school,” Azam said.
The bond issue was in the works for several years.
“With the way school funding, or the lack of school funding, is we’ve had to do some things with bonds to be able to do projects in the school because we’re recaptured. We didn’t have a lot of money sitting around. We had to use some bond elections for capital projects. But what we did was around 2012-13, after we passed that first rolling bond we realized that … we could do capital projects. We were upgrading or redoing certain faculties. … We used some of the other bond funds. We’ve expanded Devonian and Underwood (elementary schools). We’ve expanded Clearfork (Elementary). We’ve added wings to each of those buildings to take in the growth. We’ve added an annex to the middle school, so we’ve basically touched every aspect and every campus — everything from our kindergarten all the way up through middle school,” Azam said.
They knew the high school was the “last frontier.”
“It was the big project that was going to take, A, a lot of money, and B, some time. So in roughly around … 2015 we knew we were going to have to do it. We had to start making some decisions back then,” Azam said.
It was decided not to build a new high school. There was a sneak preview when a culinary area was added.
That led to the current bond issue that trustees called for in February.
“We’ve had bond elections since 1993 when Robin Hood started. … We’ve had multiple elections as far back as when they did Devonian and Underwood … the performance center. We’ve had an ‘11 bond for our technology and buses. We’ve maintained that money and we’re about to spend the last portion of that money in the next few months in ‘23. We passed the ‘18 bond. That capital project bond is going to last us through … 2035. The key to all of that is that it’s paid off except the 2018, which will be paid off in a few years. With the way we’ve structured things, the way we’ve figured things out, how to navigate that, our people understand that,” Azam said.
He added that he’s not saying the bond will pass or fail, but that people understand they have been able to keep the tax rate low.
Azam said they have made several community presentations.
“We’ve done two in February. We’ll do two in March. We’ll do two in April. The people there have asked really good questions and the feedback has been positive. There’s also some in town we know that are not for it. We’ve tried to answer those questions, so I would have to say right now we won’t know until the election occurs. A lot of the questions have been good and a lot of the feedback has been positive,” Azam said.
He added that the propositions are separated because of the way the law is right now.
“It’s good transparency. You get to see exactly which proposal is what stuff,” Azam said.
