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Saturday
March 20, 2010 Since 1922 |
Time to cast their ballots
By Austin Kinghorn
Baytown Sun Published October 15, 2005 Barbers Hill voters will decide today whether to pull the trigger on $43.8 million in new facilities designed to handle the school district’s exploding growth for the next five years.
Today is general election day for the two-part referendum, with polls open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Precincts 4 and 10 will vote at the Barbers Hill administration building, 9600 Eagle Drive, while precincts 5, 8 and 11 will cast ballots at the Cove Community Building, 8311 FM 565 South.
“Over the last two years we have grown by over 500 students, and we’re projecting another 1,600 over the next five years,” said Superintendent Wayne Rotan. “In order to accommodate that number of students we’ve got to have the facilities ready.”
By percentage, the district is the ninth fastest growing in the state and is second in the Houston area only to Pearland school district.
Early voting concluded Tuesday with 513 votes cast. School board member Carmena Goss said that number was down roughly 100 from previous bond issues and blamed Hurricane Rita for the slow turnout.
“I certainly hope we’ll have a good turnout and that people will support our bond,” she said. “We definitely need it.”
The centerpiece of the bond issue, Proposition 1, includes two additions of 25 classrooms to the high school, a new elementary campus, renovations to the intermediate campus, expansions of the district’s administration building and warehouse and technology upgrades including the expansion of the student laptop program to the high school. The total cost of Proposition 1 is $41.4 million.
Proposition 2 provides for renovations to the district’s field house, which has remained largely unmodified since its construction in 1981. Also included are a practice track and alternate football field, increased seating at the softball fields and an addition of pens and stalls to the existing livestock facility. Proposition 2 would cost $2.4 million.
If approved, the total bond package would result in a 2.2 to 2.3 percent increase in residents’ property taxes for 2006, followed by an increase of 1.1 percent in 2007 and 2008.
According to estimates supplied by the district, the resulting increase in taxes on a home worth $100,000 would be $26 in 2006 and $13 in 2007 and 2008. Taxes on a home appraised at $215,000 would increase by $63 in 2006, $31 in 2007 and $32 in 2008.
The bonds together total the district’s second largest referendum in history. The largest was in 1998 when voters approved a $45 million bond that paid for district-wide improvements including a new state-of-the-art high school campus. Barbers Hill voters have never turned down a bond referendum.
The Barbers Hill Bond Promotion Committee will continue its efforts to get voters to the polls today by manning a phone bank and setting up a booth at the Barbers Hill Fall Fest encouraging residents to vote.
The committee raised funds in the community to print 500 yard signs in support of the bond and mail full-color brochures to every mailbox in the district.
John Daniels, the committee’s chairman, said the group’s goal was to make sure voters could make an informed decision when they went to the polls.
“We think the necessities in the bond referendum will definitely get through to the voters, they’ll come out for us and we’ll pass the bond referendum,” Daniels said.
The school board called for a bond election in August as the culmination of a process that began in September 2004 with the selection of demographer Pat Guseman of Population and Survey Analysts to study the district’s growth trends and offer projections that would allow the district to plan for new facilities.
In May, a citizen advisory committee made up of citizens appointed by the board and district personnel selected by the administration began meeting to prioritize the district’s needs and present a bond package for the board to approve.
The only apparent point of controversy in the referendum is $1.5 million earmarked in Proposition 1 that would provide a laptop computer to every student in the high school. A similar program is already in place at the district’s middle school campus.
The citizen’s advisory committee recommended to the board that the laptops be separated into a third proposition, but the board made the decision to roll them into Proposition 1, a move some voters say was made out of concern the program would not pass muster with voters, some of whom have said the program is unnecessary.
Joe Rabalais, a Mont Belvieu resident, is one voter who says he supports everything included in Proposition 1 with the exception of the laptop program.
“The citizen’s advisory committee made a recommendation that the laptop program be its own separate proposition,” he said. “Somehow that got taken out and put into Proposition 1.”
Rabalais said he was aware of about 300 flyers that had been distributed to homes in the district asking voters to turn down Proposition 1 because of the laptop program.
But district school board members, administrators and teachers have rallied behind the program, saying it is in keeping with the district’s reputation of being a frontrunner in education.
“I’m sorry some people felt like it needed to be a separate proposition, but I think the board did what we felt was necessary,” Goss said. “We are committed to technology in this district and this is going to be the future. Barbers Hill likes to be proactive.”
The laptop program is designed to increase students’ exposure to technology and will eventually eliminate all traditional textbooks in favor of electronic resources that provide a more interactive learning experience as well as an easier way to update content.
“The laptops keep our district up with the technology skills that will help them be successful in later life,” Rotan said.
Expanding the laptop program will defray other costs, Rotan said. Four classrooms currently used for computer labs will be converted back to traditional classrooms, saving the district an average of $215,000 per classroom in new construction costs. Additionally, 400 desktop computers at the high school are due to be replaced, but Rotan said laptops would eliminate that cost.
Daniels acknowledged some opposition to the program but said he hoped voters keep the big picture in mind and support the bond.
“This bond is needed very much by the district,” he said.
+ + +
Barbers Hill bond election
Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Precincts 4 and 10 vote at the administration building, 9600 Eagle Drive.
Precincts 5, 8 and 11 vote at the Cove Community Building, 8311 FM 565 South.
Baytown Sun Published October 15, 2005 Barbers Hill voters will decide today whether to pull the trigger on $43.8 million in new facilities designed to handle the school district’s exploding growth for the next five years.
Today is general election day for the two-part referendum, with polls open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Precincts 4 and 10 will vote at the Barbers Hill administration building, 9600 Eagle Drive, while precincts 5, 8 and 11 will cast ballots at the Cove Community Building, 8311 FM 565 South.
“Over the last two years we have grown by over 500 students, and we’re projecting another 1,600 over the next five years,” said Superintendent Wayne Rotan. “In order to accommodate that number of students we’ve got to have the facilities ready.”
By percentage, the district is the ninth fastest growing in the state and is second in the Houston area only to Pearland school district.
Early voting concluded Tuesday with 513 votes cast. School board member Carmena Goss said that number was down roughly 100 from previous bond issues and blamed Hurricane Rita for the slow turnout.
“I certainly hope we’ll have a good turnout and that people will support our bond,” she said. “We definitely need it.”
The centerpiece of the bond issue, Proposition 1, includes two additions of 25 classrooms to the high school, a new elementary campus, renovations to the intermediate campus, expansions of the district’s administration building and warehouse and technology upgrades including the expansion of the student laptop program to the high school. The total cost of Proposition 1 is $41.4 million.
Proposition 2 provides for renovations to the district’s field house, which has remained largely unmodified since its construction in 1981. Also included are a practice track and alternate football field, increased seating at the softball fields and an addition of pens and stalls to the existing livestock facility. Proposition 2 would cost $2.4 million.
If approved, the total bond package would result in a 2.2 to 2.3 percent increase in residents’ property taxes for 2006, followed by an increase of 1.1 percent in 2007 and 2008.
According to estimates supplied by the district, the resulting increase in taxes on a home worth $100,000 would be $26 in 2006 and $13 in 2007 and 2008. Taxes on a home appraised at $215,000 would increase by $63 in 2006, $31 in 2007 and $32 in 2008.
The bonds together total the district’s second largest referendum in history. The largest was in 1998 when voters approved a $45 million bond that paid for district-wide improvements including a new state-of-the-art high school campus. Barbers Hill voters have never turned down a bond referendum.
The Barbers Hill Bond Promotion Committee will continue its efforts to get voters to the polls today by manning a phone bank and setting up a booth at the Barbers Hill Fall Fest encouraging residents to vote.
The committee raised funds in the community to print 500 yard signs in support of the bond and mail full-color brochures to every mailbox in the district.
John Daniels, the committee’s chairman, said the group’s goal was to make sure voters could make an informed decision when they went to the polls.
“We think the necessities in the bond referendum will definitely get through to the voters, they’ll come out for us and we’ll pass the bond referendum,” Daniels said.
The school board called for a bond election in August as the culmination of a process that began in September 2004 with the selection of demographer Pat Guseman of Population and Survey Analysts to study the district’s growth trends and offer projections that would allow the district to plan for new facilities.
In May, a citizen advisory committee made up of citizens appointed by the board and district personnel selected by the administration began meeting to prioritize the district’s needs and present a bond package for the board to approve.
The only apparent point of controversy in the referendum is $1.5 million earmarked in Proposition 1 that would provide a laptop computer to every student in the high school. A similar program is already in place at the district’s middle school campus.
The citizen’s advisory committee recommended to the board that the laptops be separated into a third proposition, but the board made the decision to roll them into Proposition 1, a move some voters say was made out of concern the program would not pass muster with voters, some of whom have said the program is unnecessary.
Joe Rabalais, a Mont Belvieu resident, is one voter who says he supports everything included in Proposition 1 with the exception of the laptop program.
“The citizen’s advisory committee made a recommendation that the laptop program be its own separate proposition,” he said. “Somehow that got taken out and put into Proposition 1.”
Rabalais said he was aware of about 300 flyers that had been distributed to homes in the district asking voters to turn down Proposition 1 because of the laptop program.
But district school board members, administrators and teachers have rallied behind the program, saying it is in keeping with the district’s reputation of being a frontrunner in education.
“I’m sorry some people felt like it needed to be a separate proposition, but I think the board did what we felt was necessary,” Goss said. “We are committed to technology in this district and this is going to be the future. Barbers Hill likes to be proactive.”
The laptop program is designed to increase students’ exposure to technology and will eventually eliminate all traditional textbooks in favor of electronic resources that provide a more interactive learning experience as well as an easier way to update content.
“The laptops keep our district up with the technology skills that will help them be successful in later life,” Rotan said.
Expanding the laptop program will defray other costs, Rotan said. Four classrooms currently used for computer labs will be converted back to traditional classrooms, saving the district an average of $215,000 per classroom in new construction costs. Additionally, 400 desktop computers at the high school are due to be replaced, but Rotan said laptops would eliminate that cost.
Daniels acknowledged some opposition to the program but said he hoped voters keep the big picture in mind and support the bond.
“This bond is needed very much by the district,” he said.
+ + +
Barbers Hill bond election
Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Precincts 4 and 10 vote at the administration building, 9600 Eagle Drive.
Precincts 5, 8 and 11 vote at the Cove Community Building, 8311 FM 565 South.