A 25-year, $54.6 million bond program would be the most pragmatic and efficient route for a Hays CISD trustee-appointed committee to consider going forward, district administrators said in a Nov. 14 meeting.

Superintendent Michael McKie presented a list of capital improvement projects the district would like to pursue with bond money, and chief among them were building a new middle school and upgrading district-wide technology infrastructure.

Hays CISD officials have said previously that $64 million was the maximum bond amount it would consider, but McKie said a smaller amount would more likely create positive public perception about the bond.

"We didn't feel comfortable saying we are going to push everything to the limit," he said. "We thought we needed to be conservative and let people know we are really looking at how we are spending taxpayers' money."

The 23 members of the growth impact committee will be charged with possibly trimming the administration's $62 million list of capital improvements.

"As you can see, we still have some work to do," McKie said after presenting the list, which was scaled back from an original $67 million.

Constructing a new middle school, which would be the district's sixth, would cost a projected $35 million, according to the presented list.

The district has yet to specify a location for the potential new middle school, but only two out of five of its middle schools are east of I-35, where a majority of students in grades 6 through 8 live, according to a presentation made by a demographics consultant last week.

The two items, in a prioritized breakdown, received a score of "1.0," a high priority according to the district's 1-to-5 scale.

A second phase of bus purchases, which would replace 21 buses for total cost of $2.1 million, was ranked among the administration's lowest priorities with a score of 2.29.

The 23 members of the growth impact committee charged with putting together a recommendation will ruminate on this list and score the projects using the same 1-to-5 scale by Tuesday.

Committee members will reconcile their rankings and could finalize a recommendation when the committee meets next on Nov. 21.

In December, the committee is slated to present its recommendation to the board of trustees.

The board has until Feb. 24 to call for a May 10 bond election.