The Hays Consolidated Independent School District is expected to move forward with their request for a $60 million bond. The bond would pay for the creation of a middle school, wireless and mobile devices and additional school buses.
The school district views the spending as necessary, if it wants to keep up with student enrollment growth. On Monday, the Hays CISD School Board will vote on a bond recommendation from the district's Growth Impact Committee, a group of citizens charged by the board to assess growth of the community.
Hays' city demographer is projecting middle school enrollment to increase by 486 students over the next three years. That growth would exceed the capacity for four of their five current middle schools.
Those figures would continue Hays' veritable explosion in student enrollment over the past decade; enrollment has grown by nearly 10,000 students since 2000, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Hays CISD projects a new middle school could keep their student enrollment with capacity for the next five to seven years.
Hays CISD spokesperson Tim Savoy said the school board will vote whether to move forward or make changes to the bond proposal on Dec. 16 at Hays High School. Savoy said the district is likely going to need an additional middle school, high school and elementary school within the next few years.
"The challenge is having room to accommodate all the students – Just keeping up with the demand for physical space at the schools," Savoy says.
Here’s a breakdown of how the proposed spending goes:
- $35 million: New middle school
- $12.27 million: Instructional technology upgrades
- $2.49 million: Security upgrades
- $3.3 million: 33 new school buses
- $5.12 million: Career and technology building at Hays High School
Hays voters last approved a $86.7 million bond in 2008.
If the board moves to approve the bond recommendation, they would begin informing the public about the bond and open it up for public discussion. In February, the board would vote whether to have a bond election that May.