Following a recommendation from the district’s Facility Advisory Committee, the Brownwood ISD Board of Trustees unanimously called a bond election for May 6. If approved, the $59,950,000 bond, made up of three propositions, will fund district-wide improvements, including but not limited to, Safety and Security Upgrades, ADA/Code Improvements, and a Multi-Purpose Indoor Student Activity Center.
A school bond is similar to a home mortgage. It is a contract to repay money borrowed over time with a fixed, tax-exempt interest rate. Bonds are approved/authorized by voters and later sold by a school district to lenders/underwriters to raise funds to pay for the costs of construction, acquisitions, renovations and/or equipment.
Under state law, if you have applied for and received the age 65 and older Homestead Exemption, your school taxes cannot be raised above their frozen level unless you make significant improvements or additions to your home.
Pillars of the community, Mike Blagg and Charles Lockwood, shared their insights on Brownwood ISD and their reasoning for supporting the bond:
***
MIKE BLAGG
The Brownwood ISD school bonds are very much needed and important for the students. For senior citizens like me (over 65), passage of the bond election WILL NOT change your taxes. Your real estate taxes are frozen (barring upgrades to your home).
Your YES vote will help the students of the Brownwood schools. Yes, the majority of the bond will go for athletic facilities (more about that in a minute), but not all. There will be upgrades to school security cameras, etc. The camera systems we have now are nearly 20 years old, and that is very much obsolete in the world of electronics. School security and safety are supremely important, of course. Also there are upgrades and improvements to be made at the Middle School and the Elementary schools.
Now to athletics. The Brownwood school district has actually spent very little money on athletic facilities over the last 30- to 40-years. Our “new” gymnasium was built in the 1980’s. That’s about when the baseball and softball fields were built. The small, indoor workout facility known as the Snodgrass Building was built with private money. The upgrades to the softball field were done with private money.
The softball field is in good shape, other than lights, which will be replaced if the bond passes. The baseball field, however, is in terrible shape: the field itself, the dugouts, the stands, the press box, the concession stand and restrooms are all in poor condition. The baseball field needs to be totally rebuilt, and will be if the bond passes.
Our tennis courts are in bad shape, almost all other schools we play have better tennis courts than Brownwood. Tennis is a thriving and successful program under Coach Blazek, and it deserves upgraded facilities.
The gymnasium desperately needs some ADA improvements. Sometimes older men and women can’t watch their grandchildren play volleyball or basketball, because access to the stands is difficult. Also the locker rooms and showers in the gym are in dire need of improvement.
The Gordon Wood football stadium will also get sorely needed ADA improvements, again helping out many fans who now have a hard time getting into the stands. The stadium would also get some additional seating on the home side, and improvements to the press box, restrooms, and concession stands.
And finally, the new Student Activity center will be a great addition to the high school. It will allow for indoor practice in inclement weather for not only football, but band, baseball, softball, and many other uses. I suspect it will be a very busy place.
Also keep in mind that athletics and academics are not mutually exclusive. They actually go hand-in-hand. Students involved in athletics actually do better in academics.
So, to my fellow senior citizens, please vote YES for all three school bond proposals: A,B, and C. Your taxes will not go up. But the opportunities for the youth of our town will. Our children deserve the best. Let’s give it to them!
***
CHARLES LOCKWOOD
A community is only as good as its youth and to be progressive and to keep people here you have to provide the most important thing a community can, which is a great education and great schools, which means great facilities.
With the last bond almost 20 years ago, they were able to accomplish a lot of the academic improvements that allows for a great environment for academics. Brownwood is an outstanding academic with great leadership, but extracurricular facilities have been ignored for years. Some of these facilities aren’t much different from when I went to high school in the ’70s.
It’s been 40-years plus for a lot of these improvements in a lot of areas. Those things have been patched or skimmed over. This community can’t go out and raise money from private businesses anymore with the amount of spending that’s necessary to bring us up to standard. This is such an important thing to do and if we continue to wait longer, it’s going to cost even more.
The ADA situation at our spectator facilities like Gordon Wood Stadium and Warren Gym is so weak and improvements need to happen and that will be addressed.
We have a beautiful stadium, but it opened my senior year in high school in 1973. Aside from turf and track, nothing has been done to the main structure and it has to be preserved. It’s made of concrete and steel, so it’s built great, but it doesn’t have the ADA requirements needed for people that issues getting in and out, or the handicapped. It’s not a friendly stadium at all in that regard.
The lights that are there now aren’t even compliant with the UIL and the restrooms and locker rooms aren’t up to par. Some improvements were made to the restrooms, but they’re not adequate for the seating capacity and a lot of our games are sold out.
The baseball stadium was pretty much hand built by the coaches here and is not compliant in a lot of areas and our baseball team deserves better than that. The tennis courts haven’t changed much since I was in high school, resurfaced very cheaply and the kids in the tennis program deserve better.
Districts across the state are building these indoor facilities to complement their extracurricular activities. It’ll be a great asset not only for the sports teams but the band, drill team, and cheerleaders. It’s a great asset for all of our students and badly needed.
The pride of the community revolves around the school and the students. Without a great school system – academics, athletics, extracurriculars – the town will suffer. Brownwood has been progressive in its downtown redevelopment, there’s a lot of moving and shaking in retail and other areas. We need to continue that and follow that up with improving our schools. I want to see my grandkids benefit from this and be excited to attend school everyday because it will be a great place to be. Our teachers deserve it, our coaches deserve it, so I hope everyone will support it and realize the importance of what this means to the future for our kids.
For those 65 and older there is no impact from the bond issue. You’re voting for the future of our children and grandchildren.
***
The following are the propositions that will be on the May 6 ballot and you can vote for one, two, three, or none:
Proposition A, at $27,650,000, features the following district-wide projects:
- Safety and security upgrades across the district
- Renovate Snodgrass Facility
- New field house at high school (locker rooms, weight room, training room, conference room, offices, storage, laundry)
- Renovate locker rooms at high school
- Accessible seating in high school gym
- Renovate middle school locker rooms
- New gym flooring at all elementary campuses
- New intermediate school auditorium seats
Proposition B, at $16,300,000, revolves around the following improvements to Gordon Wood Stadium:
- Home bleacher addition (1,000 seats)
- ADA/code improvements (Ramp access, aisles and stairs renovated for code compliance, ADA parking)
- New lights
- New concessions/restrooms
- New press box with elevator
- New turf and track resurface
Proposition C, at $16,000,000, calls for the construction of an indoor student activity center at BHS and additional facility upgrades that will feature:
- Use by band, baseball, softball, football, soccer, PE, and others
- 80 yards of turf
- Training room, dressing rooms, storage, offices
- Tennis improvements (Remove/replace courts, new scoreboard, new lights, new bleachers, windscreen)
- Baseball/Softball improvements (renovation of baseball field with new bleachers, dugouts, backstop, canopy over batting cages); New lights for baseball and softball fields
Early voting begins Monday, April 24 and runs through Tuesday, May 2 at the Brown County Elections Office. Election Day is Saturday, May 6.
* The preceding content was approved and sponsored by the Brownwood Pride PAC