By Moses Leos III
Hays CISD’s process of pinpointing a location for a potential third high school took its first steps Thursday during a public forum on the matter.
While a possible May 2017 bond hasn’t been fully discussed, Hays CISD public information officer Tim Savoy said knowing the location could help voters decide whether they will support a bond.
“If you’re going to vote on a project as large as a high school, then knowing where that high school is going to be built is important for voters when they make a decision next year,” Savoy said Thursday.
Savoy said the district’s site selection committee, which began discussions in November 2015, plans to give the school board its recommendation by Feb. 2.
The committee, which consists of 21 individuals, will whittle down the district’s four options on where the high school could go. All four options are parcels of property currently owned by the school district. The parcels fit within criteria set by the district, which includes a minimum 80 acres of space.
Hays CISD’s path toward a potential third high school comes as the district anticipates an influx of students over the next few years.
The district projects more than 6,400 high school students within Hays CISD by 2020.
Talk of a third high school was discussed during the district’s last bond election in 2014. At the time, the district’s bond capacity was only $70 million. Savoy said a new high school could cost the district roughly $100 million.
Several factors, including growth in the district and paying off older debt, allowed Hays CISD to move forward with a possible May 2017 bond.
Savoy said a bond committee will begin in the summer or fall 2016 and will assess what will go into the bond. Along with a third high school, the committee will also look into two to three more elementary schools and possibly a seventh middle school.
According to Savoy, the faster the district starts on preliminary site work could lead to a faster time to construction, if the bond is approved. The district hopes to open the new high school by 2019.
“It’s not the school board that makes the decision to build a high school,” Savoy told residents in attendance at the meeting. “That’s you.”
Kyle resident John Lahmon, who is a Hays CISD bus driver, was concerned about one of the four location options and the traffic it could bring to the FM 1626 and FM 967 intersection.
Lahmon said he hears about accidents along FM 967 on the radio, where the district asks drivers to reroute; that change can be a challenge.
Improvements at the intersection to upgrade mobility would be “pie in the sky,” according to Lahmon.
“Putting a high school out there versus that traffic pattern, I don’t see that as a good marriage,” Lahmon said.
Buda resident Dave Ballinger believed it would “make sense” to put a high school on the northwest side of the district.
Ballinger also understood possible traffic issues, but said that traffic was “already horrible” and that he didn’t see it affecting traffic “that much.”
“If you do build a new high school, whether you have to widen a road, that may be something that has to happen. No matter where it’s built,” Ballinger said.
