ABC-7 Update: Y.I.S.D. Bond Projects

been two weeks since the ysleta school district passed a $430- million-dollar bond. at tonight’s board meeting, the district said it already has an idea of when eastwood high students will start to see orange construction cones outside the school. the district is currently finalizing contract negotiations with the bond’s program manager vlk construction. but superintendent dr. xavier de la torre has an idea of what projects have priority: renovating eastwood high oldest parts and adding more than 250,000 square feet. rebuilding the del valle middle and elementary combo and creating a new bel air middle. the reason for that is these are expensive projects. every year that we suspend or wait to move forward with those projects is going to result in a 5 percent escalation or increase in cost. so there is a sense of urgency to get started. de la torre says just the design process alone for eastwood high will take a year. if i had to guess i would probably say june of 2017 is when construction will actually start. that’s when is estimates the del valle combo school construction will start at well. another project with high priority — installing artificial turf at all the district’s high schools. yisd football players and band — you’ll see it by next season. we are moving aggressively and ambitiously. i thought it was hard passing a bond, the work really starts now yisd is also picking the members of its bond oversight committee. de la torre says the names that have been submitted are people from the community– with no ties to bond construction, and a steeped background in either engineering, finance and big budgets. the official project timeline will be presented at the next board meeting on december 9th. new at ten. last week we told