District residents can see the effect of Pflugerville ISD’s 2014 bond as PfISD progresses on several construction projects throughout the district.
PfISD is constructing High School No. 4 off Weiss Lane as well as a new Timmerman Elementary School and district stadium across the street from Pflugerville High School. Furthermore, the district hired a contractor in February for its 21st elementary school.
PfISD Superintendent Alex Torrez said the district has moved forward on several projects simultaneously to save taxpayers money because of rising local construction costs.
“We’re being fiscally responsible,” Torrez said. “For every month we wait, the cost of labor and materials increases.”
Torrez said the district is also moving aggressively because the deadlines for the projects are “hard deadlines,” meaning they have to open before the start of a certain school year.
“When we say the high school is going to open in 2017, we don’t have flexibility with that because all our planning is geared toward that first day of school,” he said. “If you’re a business and you’re building the facility you can maneuver with your opening date. But when you’re talking about opening and adding hundreds of students to a campus, everybody is expecting that’s where they’re going to be.”
Deputy Superintendent Troy Galow said the projects are on schedule despite heavier rains than usual for the season, which often lead to construction delays.
“When we build a job schedule we budget certain rain delays to account for that,” Galow said. “We know a few of those days are not going to be constructible days.”
