CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — A $242 million dollar school bond is on the ballot for residents within the Gregory-Portland Independent School District.
Superintendent Michelle Cavazos is hoping voters will consider what the bond will mean for students and staff when heading to the polls.
"We are at a unique opportunity to do this without increasing the total tax rate," Cavazos said.
The biggest ticket item on the bond is a new T-M Clark Elementary campus. Cavazos adding that the current campus is starting to show its age.
"That school is currently our oldest facility, educating students ranges 14-25 years older than any of our other schools and it was not originally built to be an elementary," she said.
The new campus would also provide space for the growing district connected with the industry and housing boom the area is now experiencing.
"We're pushing 5,000 students so we need more rooms for our kids, more space," she said.
Cavazos said that growth from industry is helping keep residents from seeing any kind of tax increase. She said that business and industry covers 89-percent of G-PISD's tax base or 89-percent per dollar.
"Because they are our top tax payers, on the revenue we get them taxed at their full valuation, we are able to capitalize on that for our students," she said.
Another item on the list is school cafeteria upgrades. New baseball and softball turf fields and updated safety and security measures.
"Also, a family resource center for our families that is in conjunction with our maintenance and transportation facility," she said.
Proposition B would bring a new multi-purpose center and field house at a cost of just over $43 million. The project was included in the bond due to higher construction costs.
"Our board approved the design for that a little over a year ago, it provides enlarged locker rooms, spaces for all of our athletic programs, but also space for our marching band for their props and other equipment," she said.
Cavazos said the building would include a multipurpose space for training or competitions.
"With the field house and multi-purpose center, that along with a couple of other items construction costs as we've been told 30-50 percent higher than they have been before," she said.
Proposition C comes in at a cost of over $53 million.
"A visual and performing arts center that includes enlarged band halls should the voters approve this just provide a state of the art facility for our students to perform in," she said.
You can learn more about the G-PISD bond on the district's website.
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