With less than a month until the Austin ISD bond election, some community members are expressing concerns about the way the district has organized projects and informed the public about the proposed $892 million bond.

Parents, teachers, residents and district officials gathered for a community meeting April 17 at Bowie High School, which is expected to receive $34,958,215 in upgrades as part of the district's proposed bond package.

Parent and Northwest Austin resident Karen Flanagan said she is encouraging others to vote against the bond.

"I think you all are not respecting the citizens of Austin [by] asking us to fund things that should be fixed right now," she told Superintendent Meria Carstarphen and other AISD officials at the meeting.

The bond comprises four propositions aiming to provide relief in categories including technology, building infrastructure, academic initiatives, fine arts, athletics and relief from overcrowding, according to AISD. There are hundreds of individual line items in the bond. Some changes would be districtwide, while others are school-specific.

If the bond passed, much of the funding would go toward facility repairs, some of which Flanagan said she thinks the district should instead solve by heading to Home Depot. She pointed to examples including 17 schools that need windows replaced, 12 facilities needing new water faucets, six schools that need debris or graffiti removed from roofs, and five schools that need new toilets.

Laura Arbilla, an AISD parent and Northwest Austin resident, said she does not agree with the way the district prioritized and organized its bond propositions. For example, she said while she would support projects offering relief for overcrowding at schools like Murchison Middle School, she does not want to have to vote for a proposition that would give thousands of dollars to minor fixes to get it.

"There are a lot of tasks and chores listed in the bond that seem like they should be funded with maintenance money," she said. "If you read [the bond line items], there's a school that is asking for a mirror for a bathroom. There's another one that's asking for a few doorknobs for a few doors. These are not things you borrow money for."

One attendee pointed out the AISD bond website's interactive map reveals what amount of money and specific projects would be implemented at each school, but that information is not broken down so that voters can view what proposition they need to vote for to ensure the school does or does not get funding for that project.

Arbilla said she does not think there is enough time between now and the election May 11 for the district to sufficiently promote that information.

Arbilla questioned why the bond's Proposition 4 includes funding to renovate the old Anderson High School campus in Central Austin to be used as the school for young men, which she said some community members do not support. Carstarphen noted one reason the school for young men was approved is that some people questioned the equity of the district offering an all-girls college prep school, but not one for boys.

Alberto Gonzalez, who serves on the district advisory committee, clarified that the funding listed in the bond is for a school for young men to serve as the companion school to the Ann Richards School for Young Women Leaders, and not the boys' school proposed as part of the redesign for Pearce and Garcia Middle Schools in District I. While the District I single-sex schools have also been approved by the school board, they are separate from the school for young men that is slated to be placed at ALC and receive $4.6 million in funding from The Moody Foundation.

Also at the meeting was Casie Wenmohs, a parent and legislative chair of the Austin Council of PTAs, or ACPTA. The ACPTA has adopted a resolution in support of the AISD bond, she said, adding that there are about 17,000 PTA members within AISD, and many PTAs are adopting the resolution at the campus level.

She said that while the legislature has discussed possibly restoring some public education funding, $60 million was cut during the last legislative session, and the estimated amount to be restored is $2.2 million. She noted that while other school districts receive state funding for facilities, AISD does not.

Parent Bob Wittmeyer noted that in the 2008 bond, AISD secured funds for land for the purchase for a new high school in South Austin, but still has not acquired land.

"It's 2013; that was more than five years ago," he told Carstarphen. "You approved that money five years ago. Obviously you didn't need it. What gives us that assurance that you need this money, when you clearly didn't need that money?"

Carstarphen replied that Austin is not an easy place to buy land, and the district must take time to consider a variety of issues including academic programming, district boundaries, available sites and impervious cover.

"If you really know South Austin, you know Bowie [High School] is filled to the gills; we know there's impervious cover down here. Finding a place and getting those kinds of things sorted out and making sure that we're dealing with relief for Akins [High School] as well—this all has to be carefully done."

The district plans to hold another bond community meeting April 24 from 6 to 8 p.m. at Summit Elementary School, 12207 Brigadoon Lane.