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Crandall $50 million bond vote Tuesday
Nov 4, 2007
More than 1,000 new students are expected in the Crandall school district by 2011 so Crandall officials are asking voters to approve $50 million in bonds during Tuesday’s election.
Officials plan to sell $20 million next year, if the proposal is approved, and begin work on a new elementary school in Heartland and renovations of other buildings. The other $30 million would be held in reserve until needed.
“I feel confident that our school administrators along with the assistance of the district’s architects, demographer and financial advisors have provided the CISD facilities committee a comprehensive overview of the district’s current situation with the growth issues that are upon us,” Robyn Foster, the facilities committee chairwoman, wrote in a district newsletter. “We are always going to be faced with some uncertainty; however, it is evident that our district is trying to be proactive and prudent in its management of the growth both from a financial perspective as well as a facilities perspective.”
The first phase of work would include:
New elementary school for $14.85 million to open August 2009
Elementary school improvements for $423,000
Intermediate school improvements for $420,000
Middle school improvements for $724,000
High school improvements, including relocating baseball and softball fields to the campus, for $1.8 million
Technology improvements at existing schools for $2.08 million
Raynes Education Center improvements for $200,000
Improvements for the other schools will allow the district to make the elementary schools each pre-kindergarten through fifth grade.
The $30 million for the second phase would be used to build another school, but whether it would be an elementary or middle has not been determined.
Ms. Foster and other officials stressed that the $30 million in bonds would not be sold until increased enrollment justified another school.
If the bonds are approved, taxes are projected to increase by about 6 cents, from $1.4786 this year to $1.52 in 2010 and $1.54 in 2011.
Mitzi Boyd, a Combine city council member, said she has no problem with the $20 million; it’s the $30 million that concerns her.
“The other $30 million is like an open-ended check book,” she said. “That bothers me. I don’t want five men that I really don’t know that well to have that kind of rein.
“They wouldn’t have had any problem if they had just stuck with the $20 million and come back for the $30 million if they needed it.”
Ms. Boyd is also upset by the way the election is being held. In addition to the regular early voting location at the Crandall/Combine community Center, the district set up special polls at four events throughout the district. One was at a Heartland fall festival, where the school would be built. Others were at the elementary school, intermediate school and high school.
“It is so unfair,” Ms. Boyd said. “It is destroying our voting system.”
The use of temporary polling places, usually at schools when parents are there for meetings or performances, is common. Both the Terrell and Forney school districts used them during recent bond elections.
Crandall Polling places for the bonds and state constitutional amendments are:
Pcts. 18, 30, 42 — Crandall/Combine Community Center, Crandall
Pct. 17 — Point View Baptist Church, Combine
Pcts. 3, 4, 29 — First Baptist Church, Forney
Pct. 10 — Mt. Olive Missionary Baptist Church, Scurry
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