By Tad Billmire | Published Thursday, October 29, 2009
I have been following the comments about the DISD bond election on the Liberally Lean from the Land of Dairy Queen blog. A couple of the comments jumped out at me in regard to the idea that a lot of these proposed projects in this new bond were funded previously in the bond that passed in 2003 that also funded the new high school.
I was curious and did some research. The following is a list of the projects that were funded by that bond and the amounts allocated for each campus.
Middle school: Paving parking area east of gym and parking at old vocational and ag buildings; re-carpet classrooms; re-carpet library; replace outside doors; replace condenser units and two chillers; replace toilet partitions; repaint; add telephones to each classroom (62). Total allocated: $1,250,000
Intermediate school: Add six classrooms; replace toilet partitions; remodel locker room; make east parking lot into playground; repaint; add telephones to each classroom (30). Total allocated: $1,750,000
Rann Elementary: Re-carpet library; repaint. Total allocated: $310,000
Carson Elementary: Concrete play area; metal shade structure; additional paving. Total allocated: $190,000
Now I know some of these have been completed, and I know some have not. I also am unsure about quite a few of them. As you can see, the commenters on the blog are correct in that a number of these projects are the same as those listed on this new bond.
This raises several questions. Of those projects not completed, is there a legitimate reason why they were not? If not completed, why have other projects such as lighting tennis courts and practice fields, etc. taken precedence over these previously funded projects?
I guess what it comes down to is accountability. Can we as taxpayers and voters receive some sort of an accountability report from the district about the previous bond money that was supposed to fund all these projects before we vote on this new bond?
