KATY TIMES STORY ABOUT 1982 BOND:

KISD BOND ELECTION CERTAIN

NEW HIGH SCHOOL PLANNED

From The Katy Times

By Kelly Schlesinger

The Katy Independent School district continues to plan new schools to house the ever-increasing number of students moving into the area.  Superintendent Gordon Brown told trustees Monday the district will need a new high school and junior high by the fall of 1984 and another junior high by 1987.

During a recess at the meeting, Brown said the building projects would require a new bond issue but said the board has not discussed what the total amount would be or when voters would be asked to approve it.

Trustees approved an architectural firm for the district's third high school - a 250,000 square foot facility to be built near Mayde Creek Junior High School on Barker Cypress Road and estimated to cost $15 million.

Rising student enrollment, which continues unabated, calls for the new facilities.  KISD finished the school year with 12,035 students, up from approximately 10,500 at the end of the 1980-1981 school year.

KISD approved hiring the firm of Swanson Hiester Wilson Claycomb to design the school for $852,500.  The architects designed Memorial Parkway Junior High School and received another contract Monday to design the expansion of the central administration offices.

Leach [Ken Leach, the director of planning and architecture for the district at the time] said district personnel will participate in planning the school.  He said SHWC is eager to design the school because it wants a "showplace" in the area.  The firm specializes in high schools, but has none in the Houston area.

Also submitting proposals were the firms of Goleman and Rolfe and McKitrick Richardson Wallace.  School districts traditionally do not take bids for professional services such as architectural work.

Architectural firms are paid six percent of the cost of the buildings they design.  Leach told trustees he was more comfortable with the fixed fee.

All proposals were based on the construction estimate of $15 million.  The architect's fee will rise if the construction costs exceed that estimate.

When asked later, Brown said the amount of bonds needed to finance the new projects has not been determined but will be "substantial."  Besides the high school and two junior highs, there will be the administration office expansion, estimated to cost $1.2 to $1.5 million, several elementary schools, land purchases and architectural fees.

Brown said the district would need a late fall sale to keep the projects on schedule.  When asked whether the district would call a bond election in September, he replied that KISD's last two bond sales were held in September.

Brown said the district "could be looking at a tax increase" to finance the bonds.  The timing of the sales would determine the amount of the increase, he said.  The district was to receive the assessed property values this week; without it, administration officials have said they are unable to predict if or how much the tax rate will be increased.

Portions of the architectural fees due before the bond election can be paid from existing funds, the superintendent said.

New homes in the east end of the district are putting the squeeze on upper level schools.  The new high school is to relieve Taylor and Mayde Creek Junior High School.

The new school would open with ninth graders coming out of Mayde Creek.  The first class would graduate in 1987.  The Taylor students were also phased in; that school opened in 1979 and graduated its first class in May.

The new high school would pull one-third to one-half the freshmen from Taylor keeping that school's enrollment below 2,500.

Brown also proposed KISD building its fifth junior high school south of Interstate 10 in the Nottingham Country area to relieve Mayde Creek and Memorial Parkway junior highs.  The school should open in 1984, he said.

In 1987 "at the latest," Brown said, KISD should open another junior high school, KISD's sixth north of I-10.

Trustees also authorized SHWC to begin designing the central administration office expansion.  The firm also designed the most recent office addition.

Leach said 22,000 square feet will be added to the building to enlarge the district tax offices and Waller County Appraisal District offices, add more space for other growing departments and add multi-purpose meeting rooms.

The firm will receive the standard percentage of construction cost for the design.  Also included may be a central instructional resources center and teacher's center.  Still to be explored are a central mail room and employee cafeteria, Leach said.

KISD's last bond election in September 1980, provided $39.6 million and funded three elementary schools, Memorial Parkway Junior High, the KISD stadium, vocational school, and expansion and renovation of several facilities.  Voters approved the bonds by a three-to-one margin.

The majority of work associated with that bond issue is complete or planned.  Sundown Elementary School will open this fall with the second of the three primary schools planned for Barker Cypress.  The third site has not been announced pending the completion of the land sale.

Voters approved a $36 million bond package in 1978.

[I have to make note of the fact that Kelly Schlesinger wrote this article.  She was/is an excellent journalist, and this article shows that she knew something about journalism--she got the who, what, when, where, and why down pat. She allowed no bias from the District to be a part of the story, and she did not reveal any personal bias.  Would that we had such excellent writers these days for our local papers!]