Committee tours Hillcrest, pitches projects for survey

Published 10:39 pm Wednesday, December 12, 2018

NEDERLAND — The Citizens Advisory Committee voted on a proposal to send out in a community survey to potential voters. The committee met for three and-a-half hours touring Hillcrest Elementary and forming proposals.

The feedback from the survey will drive the decisions of the committing moving forward.

The group will meet two more times before wrapping up their seven-campus tour.

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NISD began the committee to identify the needs of the district for a potential bond vote next year.

The committee met at Hillcrest Elementary, Tuesday, so the members could assess the school before the group sat down to make proposals based on the money it would cost to renovate each school versus the cost to tear down the school and create a new one in its place.

During the tour, committee members saw workrooms that were cut in half and converted to classrooms and some classrooms that were cluttered and were not wheelchair accessible.

After the tour, the committee split up into groups and came up with proposals based on estimates from an architect company. Each campus was assigned an estimate for remodeling and for a new school.

One of the more ambitious proposals requested a new high school, remodeling of both middle schools, new Langham campus and remodel the three other elementary schools, which totaled $156.6 million. The most conservative proposal suggested building a new Langham, and renovating the remaining campuses, which would cost $91 million. The group that proposed the latter proposal did so believing that the community’s threshold for passing a bond is around $120 million based on prior bonds passed. The difference allows would allow for improvements to be made for the athletics, safety and security, stadium and technology. The total cost of all of those projects would be $29.6 million.

In 2009, Nederland residents voted overwhelmingly against a $120 million bond that included four new schools and renovations the other schools and Bulldog Stadium.

For a person living in a home that cost $100,000, a $100 million bond would raise the tax rate to $0.205, which would equal $205 per year of additional taxes. A bond of $125 million would raise the tax rate $0.26, which would cost someone in a $100,000 home $260 per year. A bond of $150 million would raise the tax rate to $0.32, costing the taxpayers $320 a year

The final two meetings are scheduled for Jan. 10 at Helena Park Elementary and Feb. 12 at Central Middle School.