Voters will see familiar items on school bond ballot

Published Sunday, May 4, 2008

By Mandy Bourgeois

With early voting ongoing for Paradise ISD's $9 million bond referendum, attention has been called to a few projects that were listed in the 2001 bond election.

The band hall, Ag barn and lighting at the baseball and softball fields projects were all listed in the 2001 bond package and were not addressed due to lack of funds, said Superintendent Robert Criswell. The projects were all at the bottom of the priority list for the 2001 bond as recommended by the school board.

Criswell said the issue has been addressed at community meetings regarding the bond.

"Cost overruns prevented us from doing that," Criswell said.

While a new band hall was not constructed with bond funds, the district used bond funds to renovate the P.E. gym at Paradise Intermediate School into a band hall.

"We didn't use the same amount of money that we would've used for a new structure," Criswell said.

The new band hall will be used by various fine arts departments and will include a stage fit for the theater department to use for practices and performances.

The planned fine arts/band hall would be 4,500 square feet. The proposed Ag barn would be 3,000 square feet.