College Station ISD Superintendent marks three months with the district, discusses bond election

COLLEGE STATION, Texas (KBTX) – College Station ISD Superintendent Tim Harkrider has now been leading the district for three months.

He came to the district from Willis ISD where he served as superintendent for 10 years.

“It’s been a great start to the 23-24 school year, and my family and I have really enjoyed the first few months here in College Station,” Harkrider said.

The superintendent says he has spent the first few months getting to know the people he is working with.

“Getting in and out and seeing the day-to-day operations of how things have operated here in College Station over the last several years and just making notes and just kind of game planning things maybe that I want to tweak a little bit and then making decisions on whether that’s something we’re going to do this year or get going for next year,” Harkrider said. “The great thing about College Station is it’s a great school district, you know, there’s no major issues, which is great. Just some things that I’m keeping an eye on and just getting acclimated to what we do here.”

College Station ISD has four propositions voters will see on the ballot in November. Harkrider encourages voters to do some research about those items ahead of election day.

“I think the biggest thing honestly is just be informed. We you know, there’s a lot of misconceptions about bonds, you know, our website bond.csisd.org has all the factual information with what our 48-member committee came up with and presented to our school board,” Harkrider said.

Proposition A is the general bond. It includes the following projects:

Districtwide Safety & SecurityRenovations to Rock Prairie ElementaryA&M Consolidated HS Additions and RenovationsPhase II College Station HS Additions and RenovationsPhase II Career and Technical Education CenterCollege View HS Cosmetology LabMiddle School Playing Fields RenovationsCentral Office Additions and RenovationsTransportationTechnology InfrastructureFacilities Maintenance ImprovementsLand Acquisition

“When we build facilities, you know you’re building facilities the last 60-70 years, not 10 or 15 or 20 years. You’ve got to take care of the facilities that you have, both of our high schools, as we have grown,” Harkrider said.

Proposition B has to do with purchasing technology devices.

“We are required by law now to have our kids take the STAAR test online. So obviously we have to have the devices in order for kids to be able to test,” Harkrider said. “We’ll have a set of computers that kids can use each and every day and so I think when in our world of technology the paper pen approach really is not where we’re at anymore, we’ve got to prepare students for what they’re going to be when they graduate and the jobs that they’ll be working for at that point in time.”

Proposition C will include football stadium renovations. The district says this bond will create capacity for projected high school growth and enhance the experience for student-athletes, fans and visitors.

Proposition D will allow CSISD to turf the baseball and softball fields as well as add LED lighting at both schools. The district says this will result in more practice time, fewer delayed or canceled games, and improved field conditions.

You can watch our full interview with the superintendent in the player above.