Austin ISD looks ahead after voters narrowly pass $489M in school bonds

"We're not going to start all the projects on day one. They're going to be spread out over six years," Torres said.

Jeff Kauffmann, AISD director of construction management, said he has developed a six-year implementation plan outlining how bond projects will go from blueprints to buildings and upgrades.

He expects to present that plan to the board by June. Once it is approved, AISD might hire architects as soon as August or September, he said. His department appoints project managers to oversee each item from design to move-in, he said.

The board will then review schematic designs. Once those are approved, AISD will solicit a construction manager.

"When everybody agrees we've got the right scope and the right price, then we go back to the board to ask them to basically OK the bid. Once we do that, then we go off and start building it," he said.

Kauffmann said he has informed local architecture and engineering firms of the six-year rollout to determine availability.

"We've got to design [each project] first before we put it out to bid," Kauffmann said, noting the process can take months. Paul Turner, AISD executive director of facilities, said the Citizens Bond Oversight Committee will work to ensure the district implements what voters approved.

Annemarie Read, Oak Hill Elementary School PTA president, said she advocated for the bonds in the community.

Parent Laura Arbilla, a Northwest Austin resident, said she opposed the bond.

"There are a lot of tasks ... in the bond that seem like they should be funded with maintenance money," she said.

Don Zimmerman, founder of the Travis County Taxpayers Union, said AISD violated the law with misleading ballot language that did not disclose that bonds' potential costs are unlimited.