NACOGDOCHES — The last bond to pass for Nacogdoches Independent School District was in 2001. Now a bond of $77,995,000 has been proposed.
"There's several things that need to be taken care of within the district," said Les Linebarger, NISD director of public relations.
The focus of the bond is construction and renovations of facilities as well as priority maintenance projects.
"Our operating budget just like every other school district around the nation and around Texas is heavy on personnel for teachers, for staff," Linebarger said.
Eighty-five percent of the operating budget goes to personnel Linebarger said, leaving only 15 percent for miscellaneous items such as paper, pencils, heating and air conditioning.
Passing the bond, would allow the school to update multiple buildings. The biggest project is Emeline Carpenter Elementary School with two different options that would replace the old campus. The least expensive of the two is about $21 million.
"We have students that have to leave the classroom and go outside in the elements to go to the gym, to go to the cafeteria, to go to the library, even to go to the restroom," Linebarger said.
Other projects include converting Fredonia Elementerary to Pre-K for , renovating and expanding the transportation center and offices for , building a career and technical center at the high school for , renovating McMichael Junior High for, changes to the district support center for, and a new pressbox at the football stadium for.
"It has been a while since we built a new campus and that came out of the 2001 bond election," Linebarger said.
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The average cost of the bond to NISD homeowners is $0.33 per day or about $120 a year.
Ron Collins, treasurer for Back the Nack, a group in support of passing the bond said that it's an investment in the future.
"People when they come to Nacogdoches, they want to be able to say hey how's your schools and we want to be able to show them good the things that we can be proud of and this will help us do that," Collins said.
But not all are in favor of the bond. Diver's Depot owner, E.K. Sowell, said the price tag's too high.
"I just don't think the community can afford this," Sowell said. "You know we're all about supporting teachers and supporting the kids but it needs to be done in smaller bonds over several years."
Linebarger said that if the bond fails the school will continue to address things as they can.
"But it would be greatly restricted on how fast and how rapid we could replace roofs that leak, heating and air conditioning," Linebarger said.
If the bond does pass though Linebarger said the school will take action right away.
"We will immediately become aggressive in getting plans drawn up for what we want to do so we can hopefully by the first quarter be ready to start securing bids on this project."