Trustees of Liberty-Eylau Independent School District are scheduled to ask for a bond election during the Feb. 18 regular meeting. The district held a community meeting Thursday at the Pre-K center, explaining the needs they have identified, as well as asking for input from community members.
Trustees are expected to ask for two separate bond issues: one for capital improvements on all campuses, and another for improvements to Harris Field.
"Athletic upgrades will be a separate issue," District Spokesperson Matt Fry said. "A lot of times, athletic stuff is very polarizing."
For Harris Field, the district is looking to put turf on the field, resurface the track and upgrade existing restrooms.
Possible campus improvements include demolishing the leaky library at the primary school, which was built in 1984 as a cafeteria. Administrators are also deciding other needs on that campus, including improvements planned around the rock facade of the main building.
"We're trying to come up with something that will balance the history of the building, but also have modern facilities. That's another thing the community brought to us," Fry said.
At the elementary, there is a drainage issue around the pods on the campus, and entrances to restrooms in the fourth-grade pod area are outside.
On the middle school campus, the roof, which was installed in 1998 with a 10-year warranty, has been repeatedly patched, but needs replacing, Fry said.
At the high school, the CTE building needs upgrades, including a commercial-grade kitchen for the culinary arts department, which is required to meet state standards.
The district currently sits at a rate of $1.26, which was reduced from $1.29 three years ago, when trustees chose to reduce it.
"The economy was rocky," Fry said. "We really felt at that time, it would be more valuable to our taxpayers to give them a break. We tried to be sensitive to that with our tax rate."
Administrators are looking at a possible project total of $20 million, Fry said, and taxes on the average home in the district would be $3.82 per person. For a $100,000 home, it would be $6.08 cents per month, with the athletic upgrade proposition costing 30 cents per month.
Now is the right time to ask for a bond, administrators say, because state EDA funds, released by the legislature every few years, are now available and would pay a portion of the bond.
"Debt per student would be somewhere under 20 million,which is where we want to be," Fry said. "That's important because that gives us some really highly rated bonds. For us, based on student population and demographics on low-income students, over the course of the entire bond, the state would pay 36 percent of that. That's a pretty good deal."
There are no more community meetings scheduled prior to the Feb. 18 meeting, but officials encourage L-E residents to contact their school board members or the district's administration office if they have questions or suggestions.
"Once we get feedback, we will present a package to the board," Fry said. For the passage of the bond, he added, "If for some reason that it doesn't work, then we're still going to have to put a roof on the middle school and demolish the library at the primary school."
The meeting begins at 6 p.m. in the board room, 2901 Leopard Drive.