School board calls $394 million bond election for May

A liberal dose

February 20, 2008

Eagle Mountain-Saginaw school trustees will ask voters to approve a $394 million bond package in May, twice as large as the one approved two years ago.

The bond proposal -- the district's third in six years -- is the fourth-largest for a Tarrant County school district. It is topped only by Fort Worth's $593.6 million in 2007, Crowley's $416 million in 2007 and Fort Worth's $398 million in 1999.

The Eagle Mountain-Saginaw bond election, unanimously called by trustees Monday night, includes construction of a third high school, a sixth middle school and two elementary schools -- the district's 17th and 18th. All will help accommodate enrollment that has doubled to 14,000 students since 2002.

Trustees followed the recommendation of a 48-member Facility Advisory Task Force of parents, staff members and residents who researched the district's needs for six months.

'All you've got to do is drive around and see that the district is exploding,' said task force spokesman John Craft, a retired administrator who worked in the Carroll and Northwest districts. 'We really have no choice. We have to put our children somewhere.'

Eagle Mountain-Saginaw officials say that three elementary schools from the $196 million bond election in 2006 are scheduled to open in August. Construction is about to begin on a fifth middle school. Three new elementary schools are among projects still to be completed with 2006 bonds.

District demographer Bob Templeton projects that growth will continue at a rate of 9 percent to 10 percent.

Copyright © 2008 A liberal dose, All Rights Reserved.