PSJA ISD...Bond Issue..Let's Follow Burleson's Example....

In 1991, the year I was a senior in high school, Pharr San Juan Alamo was home to the Battlin' Bears. Fifteen years and two additional high schools later, the Pharr San Juan Alamo School Board is counting on citizen's to approve a $70 million bond issue in this May's elections. The money would go to construction of a fourth high school, a new middle school, and a new elementary school. According to a report last Thursday in The Monitor, the Pharr San Juan Alamo (PSJA) school district is growing at a rate of 800 students per year. The $70 million is necessary according to board member Roy Rodriguez because of the growth the school district is seeing. Reports indicate that the PSJA School Board called a special meeting on Tuesday and unanimously voted to put the item in the May election. Funny thing about local government, and politics, the citizens were never asked if we wanted a bond issue in the first place. Things are starting to work differently in other parts of the state. Take for instance an article that appeared in the Cleburne Times Review about the Burleson, Texas, ISD. According to the report, officials of the Burleson ISD have implemented a "citizens advisory committee". The committee would be "made up of business people, service club leaders, council members, students, retired and current educators". The report goes on to state that the committee would include a chairperson and "charge them with bringing a recommendation to the board of what should be asked for in a bond proposal". A summary of the report that states the steps a school board would take contains the following. Step One: District asks for demographic study in order for officials to determine where new facilities are needed. Steps Two through Four: Facility inventory regarding the condition of every building used in the district. Steps Five through Eight: Development of a future school plan. Consulting an architect and financial advisor to provide cost-revenue estimates for district projects. Steps Nine through Ten: Community Advisory Committee recommendations. Board decides to call for a bond election. Step Eleven: Trustees and other school officials promote election package by providing information and other support to the voting public. Again, these steps were outlined in the report appearing in the Cleburne Times Review. For the complete report go to http://www.cleburnetimesreview.com/ Some of the questions that I have regarding the approval of a $70 million dollar bond issue is whether or not it is feasible to build another high school, middle school, elementary, when as according to the same report in The Monitor, the Administration Building is topping out at $800,00 and is over a year past it's completion date. In the same report, board member Vangie Garcia-De Leon is quoted as saying, "We have a bunch of educators overseeing construction projects, and there's little things they forget that later in the project end up costing us more money". She concludes by stating that "We on the board are starting to talk about looking outside from now on". Amen to that. Why don't we take it a step further and appoint a community advisory committee in the PSJA School District? This way, the community is more involved with what goes on in the district and isn't forced to choose items on anyone's agenda that are last minute "Vote, DO IT NOW!" issues. It just seems to me that in the era of bribery schemes and extortion charges, communities around the Rio Grande Valley should think about implementing the same type of system people in Burleson are implementing. I'm all for approving a $70 million bond issue as long as the details have been closely scrutinized to make sure the money and the construction is in the best interests of the citizens and students at large and not just another possible money making scheme that local news headlines will be covering and we're stuck footing the bill.