In their initial report to the Board yesterday, the DISD Future Facilities Task Force presented recommendations for the next bond program. Expected to go to the voters in May, 4 funding scenarios were presented that range from $1.3 billion to $2.6 billion. That means that the smallest of the 4 is roughly equivalent to the last bond program, which was about 3 times the size of the largest previous bond program. The most expensive option is about double the size of the last bond program.
This announcement comes on the heels of yesterdays revelation that the District will implement a controversial plan to move 6 magnet school programs from Skyline to the new Conrad High School. On the surface, this makes sense because Skyline is reported to be overcrowded while the brand new Conrad is only partially utilized. Not all are happy, however, and there is a rumor, and I have not seen this in print, that one of our City Council members will openly oppose the bond program as a result of the Skyline changes. I expected the bond program alone to be controversial enough.
I see no good alternative to the bond program and know that I will support it. Despite widely held misgivings about how the DISD administers these programs, the bottom line is that the physical needs are real and that education in our City is impeded because of it. This is a problem that has been building for decades, not years, and the severity of the need cannot be hung on the current administration. And it certainly cannot be hung on the kids or the teachers who are operating in portables, without modern technology, adequate lab facilities, adequate music practice facilities and a host of other needs.
There is a place to download the Task Force Report at the DMN site or at the Woodrow SBDM blog site . I’m sure I will be posting more once I have had a chance to review it in more detail this weekend.
