CSISD leaders discuss future bond proposal, following failed athletic packages
COLLEGE STATION, Texas (KBTX) – College Station ISD leaders are weighing options for another bond, just over one week after voters approved half of the bonds proposed by the district for 2023.
Leaders say this might be the perfect time to go back to the drawing board on athletic proposals. These two proposals failed by just over 50% of the vote on November 7. The two that passed had overwhelming support, with over 60% of voters approving the packages.
“We were talking about with you know, 500 votes. Where we live here in College Station, I mean, call it pennies on the dollar, whatever you want to say, but it is a small number. So there is a good part of the community that says yes, we need it. There’s a good part of the community that said no we don’t see a need right now,” College Station ISD Board of Trustees President, Jeff Horak, said. “Even though we had two failed bonds we still have the needs there and so that’s the next step for us.”
These two bonds were for improvements to athletic training facilities, plus football, baseball and softball complex upgrades. But, during the board meeting Tuesday night, leaders pointed out that statewide, athletic initiatives had a hard time in front of voters.
“Athletic bonds, anything having to do with athletics that are not core curriculum like Dr. Harkrider said, they’re passing at about 36% and that’s a tough hurdle to get over,” Horak said.
This is where Hoark says it might be time to get back to the district’s messaging about how athletics fit into a good education, and the district as a whole.
“[Extracurriculars] kind of round out the well-rounded student and teaches them about teamwork and dedication and responsibility and things like that. So when you take that aspect of it, that’s the need of it and we need to kind of take that in, understand where we could be headed and why we need it now,” he said.
It is unclear this early how soon residents could see another College Station bond show up on ballots.
