Background of Citizens' 2008 Bond Advisory Committee

The mission of the Austin Independent School District is that all students will progress academically and intellectually, and will graduate prepared for personal success and inspired to contribute to society. To provide facilities that will accommodate every student's achievement, the Austin ISD Board of Trustees created the Citizens' 2008 Bond Advisory Committee (CBAC) to make recommendations for District facility needs.

Members of the committee included:

In developing a scope of work for the proposed 2008 Bond Program, the CBAC considered a variety of issues that impact students' welfare and achievement, as well as taxpayers' long-term investment in District facilities. These considerations ranged from providing a Districtwide Performing Arts Center to the renovation of facilities to address failing mechanical systems and the construction of new classrooms to relieve overcrowded schools. In doing its work, the Committee identified issues that were of immediate concern and of a critical nature, and if left unattended, would lead to much more expensive remediation in the long run.

It was the Committee's job to assess and prioritize needs identified by staff, principals and campus leaders. At all times, its goal was to develop a scope of work that would minimize the tax impact of the proposed 2008 Bond Program by focusing on projects of highest need, yet be comprehensive enough to equitably safeguard the taxpayers' investment in Austin ISD facilities and grounds. To achieve this end, the Committee adopted the following criteria to assess the merit of proposed projects:

• Narrow focus
• Urgent and important
  • Building/health code requirements and safety changes
  • Graduation requirements
  • Relief for schools at 125 percent or more of permanent capacity
  • Replacement of building components subject to imminent failure
• Making building system improvements critical to energy efficiency and environmental responsiveness
• Takes advantage of time-sensitive opportunities
• Minimal tax rate impact

At the core of the Committee's work was the identification of the most appropriate District needs for inclusion in the proposed 2008 Bond Program. The Committee went about its task in a systematic manner gathering data and input from District staff and stakeholders alike. As a result of the compressed timeline for the Committee to develop recommendations that were of an important and urgent nature, the members adopted a subcommittee structure to take an in-depth look at the following three emerging issues and to provide leadership in steering the Committee toward the most informed decisions - Overcrowding and Future Growth, a District Performing Arts Center (PAC), and Additional Projects.

School Visits - The Overcrowding and Future Growth Subcommittee began its work by touring several elementary and middle schools that had been identified by staff as relief candidates. They were accompanied by Office of Facilities Staff, as well as the campus principals, who served as resources for capacity-related issues and programmatic needs. The goal was to familiarize subcommittee members with both the range of challenges that arise as a result of student overcrowding and to provide some awareness of the impact of these logistical issues on the instructional program. Together, the sample of schools presented a wide array of conditions and their varied locations and student populations clearly illustrated the need for more permanent capacity in many of the identified facilities.

Fine Arts Program Needs - The Performing Arts Center Subcommittee visited different performing arts venues to gain a better understanding of the advantages and disadvantages of each. The facilities that were visited ranged from the Long Center to a district-wide performing arts center that housed a black box theater and finally to the auditoriums at Crockett and McCallum high schools. Subcommittee members were once again accompanied by expert faculty and staff, who provided them a thorough view of the needs for fine arts instruction.

Additional Projects Requested by Campuses - The Additional Projects Subcommittee felt it important that all Austin ISD campuses be given the opportunity to submit requests for renovation projects that met the criteria established by the Committee. All campuses principals were sent a letter, on two separate occasions, inviting them to submit requests that met the nature of the criteria. Once received, the subcommittee evaluated each request in light of the criteria and submitted recommendations to the whole committee for inclusion in the 2008 Bond Program. The subcommittee members also directed staff to include the requests that did not the meet the criteria in a database for future reference.

Public Input - As a mechanism to keep the community aware of and involved in the work of the Committee, a website for the CBAC was created on the Austin ISD homepage, www.austinisd.org. Information on members, meeting dates and locations, agendas and minutes of CBAC meetings, evaluation criteria, and timeline, were posted on the CBAC website. The Committee also held public hearings to gain input from the various constituencies across the District and provided an email address for the submission of any comments, which were in turn, forwarded to all Committee members. Again, the Committee considered the merits of this input in light of the identified "highest" needs in the overall proposed 2008 Bond Program.