Leander ISD board eyes bond savings for new stoplight near Henry Middle School

The Leander ISD board of trustees heard a recommendation from the Bond Oversight Committee to fund a new traffic signal and received an update from the Citizens’ Facility Advisory Committee Jan. 12.

The Bond Oversight Committee recommended the board use $500,000 from 2007 and 2017 bond savings to pay for a stoplight at the intersection of Golden Arrow and Vista Ridge Boulevard in Cedar Park, near Henry Middle School. Should the board approve the reallocation of funds at its Jan. 26 meeting, an interlocal agreement between LISD and the city will be brought back for board approval.

The city of Cedar Park will complete the design, bidding and installation of the project. In addition to maintaining the stoplight, the city would also fund another stoplight at Park Street and Gupton Way, near Reagan Elementary School.

“There’s a lot of traffic in the area and then there was a couple of incidents over by Reagan where individuals were actually hit by cars,” Committee Chair Jon Lux said. “So the committee felt this was an important thing to spend the extra money that we have on.”

The trustees agreed to place the reallocation on the consent agenda Jan. 26, when the board will also hear recommendations from CFAC. Clint Pruett and Matt Ormiston, committee co-chairs, said CFAC is still in the process of reviewing the recommendations from the elementary, middle school, high school, security, information technology and ancillary subcommittees.

“One hundred thirty-plus individuals went through a laundry list of projects and assigned tier 1, tier 2 and tier 3 ratings to each one,” Ormiston said.

The total funding amount for tier 1 projects from each subcommittee, which are considered critical to student success, was $448.7 million. The deadline for the board to call a May bond election is Feb. 17.