The district approved Construction Manager At-Risk Bartlett Cocke for the project in December, along with a list of professional services providers to pull from for the next five years for future renovations, additions and new construction projects.
The district purchased land for Elementary School No. 8 in May off Bee Creek Road, documents show. Additionally, the land for High School No. 2 off Reimers Peacock Road was officially purchased in December and will allow the district to get a head start on getting the site ready for construction, Superintendent Paul Norton said.
The land search for Elementary School No. 9 is ongoing, and the district will continue to evaluate existing and new land made available, Assistant Superintendent for Business Services Pam Sanchez said.
While Proposition A for $548.41 million in facilities and Proposition B for $60.79 million in technology were passed, Proposition C for $93.8 million in athletic spending failed in the November election. As a result, the new high school is slated to be built with a gym as the only athletic facility, and several proposed improvements to other facilities and athletic turf in the district were foregone.
In response to the failing bond, the district plans to reconvene the LTISD Long Range Facilities Planning Committee in the spring to discuss a potential November bond for the measures not passed in the 2022 bond, Norton said.
“As it stands right now, we would be building High School No. 2 with the only athletic facility being the gym. We would not have baseball, softball, tennis courts, tracks or a football stadium for High School No. 2,” Norton said. “If there’s anything else that needs to be considered, we’ll be looking at that as well for a potential future bond.”
Without athletic facilities at the second high school, students there would have to travel to Lake Travis High School to participate in athletic events such as football, softball, tennis or marching band, Norton said. This would push practices later into the day since school schedules do not have built-in time to accommodate travel to other schools for practice.
The timeline for when the committee will be reconvened has not been determined, but the district plans to provide an update at the Jan. 18 school board meeting.
Action may be taken during the Texas legislative session to eliminate the May election date for school boards, Norton said. In the event this change is made and a bond election is not held in November, the next opportunity for a bond election would be in November 2024.
“I think us coming together in January is really important so that we can start that process, because we can’t have a facility that doesn’t serve our student population fully,” Board Member Kim Flasch said.
Here is a breakdown of the projects from Proposition C that did not pass in the November election and will be up for consideration by the planning committee in 2023:
Proposition C
High School No. 2: $56.4 million
- Football stadium and track
- Baseball and softball fields
- Tennis courts
- Stadium renovations
- Women and men’s field house additions
- Baseball concession stand
- Outdoor golf hitting bays
- LED lighting replacements
- Turf and track surface replacement
- Stadium sound system upgrades
- Additional physical education space and field events
- Turf replacement
