Bond to move forward

The Bond Advisory Committee reached a consensus Thursday night to go ahead with a May 2022 bond.

The four items settled on are repairs, a career and technical center, technology and a high school as a separate item.

The group also agreed to meet again with district officials to go over the numbers and priorities again before the recommendations are presented to the board Jan. 11.

The figure discussed was just under $400 million.

Superintendent Scott Muri said bond advisory co-chairs Lorraine Perryman and Chris Cole would lead that meeting.

Committee member Carol Uranga said people don’t trust the public schools and as a member of LULAC she is very much pro public schools. Perryman also suggested forming a community parent teacher organization that would adopt each school and show the students that they care. This was done previously at Ector Middle School.

There was some disagreement about when to hold the election and whether to wait until May 2023.

They went over results from the Baselice & Associates survey and the Opportunity Odessa survey. The Baselice survey showed lack of support for large dollar bonds, but the Opportunity Odessa survey showed support for the school district.

Committee member Brad Howell said they have one chance at this.  

There was a $129 million bond issue and the district scores got worse.

Howell said they know that $160-$170 million is needed just to upgrade what the district has and make it usable. “That in itself is not going to add any schools. If we fail at this bond and we go to the public and say every three to five years we want another bond, if we don’t show growth and improvement that next bond is not going to happen …,” Howell said.

He added that this is very important, but they have to come up with a figure that’s going to better our education, Howell said.