YISD voters turn down $160 Million Bond Initiatives

More than $160 million was at stake as voters in the Ysleta Independent School District hit the polls Saturday, but final results show voters overwhelmingly shot down all five initiatives of the district’s bond proposal.

District superintendent Dr. Michael Zolokoski blamed the outcome on the economy. “These are tough times,” Zolokoski said. “I just feel sorry for the kids in the district.”

Dr. Zolokoski was hoping the district might be able to cash in on some of the proposal by allowing voters to pick and choose which initiatives they wanted to pay for. Voters decided not to support any of the following proposals:

– 58 percent of voters rejected a $59 million dollar plan to put in refrigerated air at all campuses.

– 58 percent of voters turned down a $15 million dollar initiative for new science labs at middle and high school campuses.

– 61 percent of voters said no to the $48 million dollar idea of constructing two new elementary schools in Northeast El Paso.

– 59 percent of voters turned down a $25 million dollar renovation project for the district’s high schools.

– 54 percent of voters turned down make a plan to make all schools in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

School district trustee Liza Montelongo said with the tight economy, now just was not the time to prove any of these proposals.

“The fact of the matter si that we do have some needs at Ysleta, but now wasn’t the right time,” Montelongo said. “I think maybe in a couple of years when the economy is better and we figure out exactly what’s going to happen in Austin, then we can go back to the taxpayers.”