The GCISD board of trustees will decide early next year whether to forge ahead with plans for a bond, though no exact amount was discussed during a special meeting held Oct. 3.
District voters passed a $248 million bond issuance in May 2016.
“We are starting to look forward to 2024, and the planning process has already begun on some levels,” Superintendent Robin Ryan said.
David Gustaf and Paul Thompson, representatives from Huckabee Architects, spoke to the board about the process and how the long-range and master-planning process would help give a glimpse of the potential scope of work. Gustaf said the district needs to focus on what its pressing wants and needs are, and once those are decided, then the firm would be able to estimate a cost to share with the district.
GCISD Chief Operating Officer Paula Barbaroux said the next step would be to form a long-range planning committee in January or February and then create a bond stakeholder’s committee in September 2023 if the board decides to pursue adding a bond issue to the ballot in 2024.
The 2016 bond focused on safety and security, growth and expansion, classroom experience and infrastructure. Growth and expansion was the largest of the four areas of focus at $79 million, which included remodeling Cannon Elementary School, which was built in 1959, and work on multipurpose activity centers at Grapevine High School and Colleyville Heritage High School. Infrastructure work accounted for more than $76 million. That money was used to replace school buses, updated playground equipment and HVAC units as well as replacing kitchen equipment that was more than two decades old.
“I have no idea what the next list of projects will be or look like,” Barbaroux said. “Some details are important for the community to understand what it is I'm really getting. You are asking me to pay for something; I want to know what I’m going to get. Everybody needs to have a stake in getting something from the bond program, whatever that is; renovation to your campus, upgrade to safety and security or an addition. Those are all important to have a successful bond program."
