New YISD Bond Proposal

if you live in the ysleta school district, listen up. the new bond proposal may be less expensive – but a major project just went up in cost. abc-7’s ashlie rodriguez… … has the new information: 80 folks on yisd’s bond committee decided the district didn’t need everything it asked for in may. it dropped about 15 of the proposed projects, including a new hanks middle and performing arts center. this cut $21 million from the bond’s total price tag–from $451.5 to $430.5. i wouldn’t be entirely honest if i didn’t tell you i am happy it wasn’t $451.5 million or more than the last bond. but the $430 million project list is an accurate portrayal of what this district needs. the district still has aging, over crowded-schools the committee wants to address. it wants to build a new bel air middle school– a new del valle middle — a new thomas manor elementary — a new mission valley elementary– and a new eastwood high school. the bond may be less expensive now, but the cost of eastwood high will be more. in may is was going to cost $75 million to completely rebuild. this time around it will cost $93 million but the district would only rebuild 80 percent of the school. its kind of counter intuitive to some people, they want to know why. the district says the first plan accounted for 1,500 eastwood students. the latest plan will account for the additional 1,600 students that come from outside the district due to the open enrollment policy. yisd says it needs a high school that can accommodate 2,500 students. that additional square footage resulted in increased costs all around and took the price tag from $75 million to $93 million. and only that kind of construction can accommodate the true number of students that attend eastwood high school. the committee will take its recommedations to the board monday. there the board choose to continue discussing the projects — or it can take action to immediately file for the november election. an