boutons_deux
10-28-2016, 02:26 PM
Texas high school stadium costs $70 million in district that can't afford elementary schools (http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/10/27/1587497/-Texas-high-school-stadium-costs-70-million-in-district-that-can-t-afford-elementary-schools)
The good news is that that goddamn stadium is getting built! Bad news is that the school district has a crazy overcrowding problem and are not sure where they are going to get the money to build new elementary schools, says Superintendent Lance Hindt. (https://coveringkaty.com/2016/10/26/katy-football-stadium-spending-leaves-school-board-bind/)
Overcrowding is a problem that is systemic and something that was known at the time board members used $12 million in surplus money from previous bonds to upgrade the stadium and to fix mistakes made during the planning process.
The district overlooked very basic elements of the construction project. It did not sufficiently plan for road improvement to properly address additional traffic. It even had to add nearly $1 million to the project to clear the property before construction could begin.
Overcrowding problems don’t end with Randolph Elementary School.
“If we don’t do something with Cross Creek Ranch Elementary School we’ll have the potential of having one of the largest elementary schools in the history of Katy ISD,” said Hindt at Monday night’s board meeting.
The district’s COO Thomas Gunnell estimates that
they need at least
four more elementary schools,
two junior high schools and
one high school
to deal with the student overcrowding problem.
Another board member, the only board member not to vote on the stadiums recently elected George Scott, became elected in part because of the school board’s growing lack of transparency (https://coveringkaty.com/2016/01/28/candidate-george-scott-to-school-board-stop-quarantining-free-speech-2/)and subsequent idiotic handling of the football stadium.
Removing the public comments video from the Katy ISD website was done in a simultaneous two-step process.
First, the board said it was moving public comments from its regular monthly meeting to its monthly work-study meeting, touting it as a way to improve communication with the public.
Then, without public notice, the district stopped posting the work-study meeting videos on its website.
A district spokesperson said it was done to save about $4,000 per year. The school district claims Texas law only requires it to post the regular monthly meeting, not the work-study meeting. Many people, including former board members Mary McGarr and Bill Proctor, disagree.
They say the district is required to post video of the work-study meetings because votes are taken on action items at those meetings. They say if the board is taking votes at a meeting, then the district is required to post videos of the meeting even if they claim it’s just a work-study session.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/10/27/1587497/-Texas-high-school-stadium-costs-70-million-in-district-that-can-t-afford-elementary-schools
The good news is that that goddamn stadium is getting built! Bad news is that the school district has a crazy overcrowding problem and are not sure where they are going to get the money to build new elementary schools, says Superintendent Lance Hindt. (https://coveringkaty.com/2016/10/26/katy-football-stadium-spending-leaves-school-board-bind/)
Overcrowding is a problem that is systemic and something that was known at the time board members used $12 million in surplus money from previous bonds to upgrade the stadium and to fix mistakes made during the planning process.
The district overlooked very basic elements of the construction project. It did not sufficiently plan for road improvement to properly address additional traffic. It even had to add nearly $1 million to the project to clear the property before construction could begin.
Overcrowding problems don’t end with Randolph Elementary School.
“If we don’t do something with Cross Creek Ranch Elementary School we’ll have the potential of having one of the largest elementary schools in the history of Katy ISD,” said Hindt at Monday night’s board meeting.
The district’s COO Thomas Gunnell estimates that
they need at least
four more elementary schools,
two junior high schools and
one high school
to deal with the student overcrowding problem.
Another board member, the only board member not to vote on the stadiums recently elected George Scott, became elected in part because of the school board’s growing lack of transparency (https://coveringkaty.com/2016/01/28/candidate-george-scott-to-school-board-stop-quarantining-free-speech-2/)and subsequent idiotic handling of the football stadium.
Removing the public comments video from the Katy ISD website was done in a simultaneous two-step process.
First, the board said it was moving public comments from its regular monthly meeting to its monthly work-study meeting, touting it as a way to improve communication with the public.
Then, without public notice, the district stopped posting the work-study meeting videos on its website.
A district spokesperson said it was done to save about $4,000 per year. The school district claims Texas law only requires it to post the regular monthly meeting, not the work-study meeting. Many people, including former board members Mary McGarr and Bill Proctor, disagree.
They say the district is required to post video of the work-study meetings because votes are taken on action items at those meetings. They say if the board is taking votes at a meeting, then the district is required to post videos of the meeting even if they claim it’s just a work-study session.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/10/27/1587497/-Texas-high-school-stadium-costs-70-million-in-district-that-can-t-afford-elementary-schools