BEAUMONT - A committee working to develop a Beaumont school
bond proposal trimmed its massive list of potential projects slightly Tuesday,
but the price tag remained unclear.
The Community Bond Advisory Committee
plans to continue its debate Thursday about what projects and what size bond
issue to recommend to the Beaumont school board, which would decide whether to
order an election.
The construction price tag at the end of Tuesday's
meeting stood at about $421 million, but that figure did not include allowances
for inflation, contingencies, furniture and other costs added to earlier
lists.
Tuesday's meeting at Roy Guess Elementary opened with a potential
figure of $830 million, including inflation and other costs.
The
district's legal debt limit is about $630 million, according to committee
co-chair David Teuscher.
A major change Tuesday was the return of the
idea of a fourth high school.
Gwen Ambres, co-chair of the high school
subcommittee, said the new high school in West Beaumont would be designed to
house 1,600 students with the primary goal of easing overcrowding at West Brook
High School.
Carl Rabenaldt with 3DI of Houston, the district's
consultant, said the cost of building a fourth high school would be about the
same as expanding and upgrading the present three high schools to handle
existing students and expected growth.
Another change from the last
meeting was cutting costs by renovating Regina-Howell Elementary and Vincent
Middle School rather than rebuilding as had been previously proposed.
The
committee's list now includes nine new elementary school buildings. Three West
End schools would be rebuilt, and one would be added. Ten East Beaumont campuses
would be combined into five new schools.
Fletcher Elementary still would
get 25 new classrooms, but minor upgrades at three newer elementary schools
would come from the district's maintenance budget instead of the
bond.
With a fourth high school, upgrades at West Brook High would be
limited to new science classrooms to meet state requirements and an
auditorium.
Ozen would get an auditorium, science classrooms and
replacement of three old halls. Central High School would get new science
classrooms, auditorium renovations and an expansion to eliminate portable
buildings.
Some committee members argued that West Brook and Ozen also
need updates to heating and cooling systems, an issue likely to be more fully
discussed at the next meeting.
A proposal for a new district-wide stadium
and natatorium (indoor swimming pool) at a neutral site remained on the
list.
At the middle school level, the demolition of South Park Middle
School and expansion and upgrade of Odom Academy and King Middle School to
accommodate South Park students remained on the table. The committee also
continued to endorse the idea of rebuilding Marshall Middle School and proposed
more extensive upgrades for Smith Middle School.
On Tuesday, the middle
school subcommittee proposed moving the Pegasus magnet program from Odom to
Austin Middle School, which would serve only Pegasus students.
The
district's last successful bond election came when voters endorsed a $56 million
proposal in 1994.
In 2002, almost 62 percent of voters rejected a
proposal to borrow $150 million for school building improvements. That bond
election included a controversial proposal to spend $4 million on stadium
renovations at Lamar University, where Ozen High School plays its home football
games.
The school board has until March 12 to order a bond election for
May 12. If the district misses the March deadline, the committee could continue
working toward a November bond election.
bgallaspy@beaumontenterprise.com(409)
880-0726