Artificial turf installed at Ysleta ISD high school fields by next fall; Eastwood High construction starts in 2017

It’s been two weeks since the Ysleta Independent School District passed a $430 million bond. At Wednesday’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-Elementary combo school, and creating a new Bel Air Middle.

“The reason for that is these are expensive projects,” De La Torre said. “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 said 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,” De La Torre said.

That’s when he estimates the Del Valle combo school construction will start at well. Another project with high priority is installing artificial turf at all the district’s high schools. YISD football players and band will see it by next season.

“We are moving aggressively and ambitiously,” De La Torre said. “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 said the names that have been submitted are people from the community, with no ties to bond construct, and a steeped background in either construction, finance and budgets.

The officially project timeline will be presented at next board meeting on Dec. 9.