Jun. 7—The Greenville ISD school board last week agreed to allocate $4.4 million toward architectural and engineering plans for improvements to GISD's preschool and middle school campuses.

The decision was made three weeks after Greenville voters rejected a $169.4 million bond issue for upgrades to multiple facilities. One reason some voters gave for not supporting the bond was the lack of detailed architectural plans available to review.

In the proposed $169.4 million bond, $31.1 million was to go toward replacing L.P. Waters Early Childhood Center, and $105.1 million was the projected cost of building a new middle school. At its May 31 special meeting, the board was presented with a trimmed down plan that included only improvements to those campuses, with about $28 million in upgrades for L.P. Waters and approximately $2.8 million to add more portable buildings to the Greenville Middle School campus.

"[The voters] have inferred that if we'd had a drawing, then that would have helped a lot of people see what they were getting for their money," Greenville Supt. Sharon Boothe said.

In the plan that the district is developing, the most crucial proposed improvement to L.P. Waters is replacing its 72-year-old foundation. This, in turn, will require much of the building to be rebuilt on top of the new foundation, so it will "trigger" multiple requirements that the Texas Education Agency (TEA) and other entities have in place for new construction at school campuses.

"In their report, [inspectors] said that in two to three years we would need to do something about ... the portion that lies beneath the 1950 part of the building ... and that we need to continue to monitor it for safety issues," said Assistant Supt. of Operations Greg Anderson.

"With the scope of repairs that would have to be made to that building, it's like a domino effect that takes place. Once we repair something, that triggers something else, which triggers something else, which triggers something else," he added.

Anderson went on to explain that for the foundation to be rebuilt at the preschool, the interior walls, ceiling, and electrical wiring would have to be taken out and rebuilt after the work on the foundation is completed.

During reconstruction, the district would have to be compliant with Americans with Disability Act (ADA) requirements, TEA classroom size rules and energy code. It would also require the addition of four more classrooms and for the cafeteria to be enlarged and built sturdy enough to double as a storm shelter.

Due to the amount of work GISD intends to do at L.P. Waters, the students and staff would have to be relocated for about two school years.

At the meeting, Anderson discussed how 13 portable buildings could be added to the middle school campus so that sixth-graders could be relocated there, and then L.P. Waters' students and staff could be temporarily moved to the Travis Elementary/current Sixth Grade Center campus.

The price of each portable building, before installation, was estimated at about $120,000.

"That's just for each building, though. That's not including sewer and water work, electrical, installing a fire detection system, building concrete sidewalks, ADA compliant ramps, and getting permits and paying for engineering fees ... which brings the total to about $2.8 million (for the adding and equipping of the portable buildings at the middle school)."

Throughout the discussion, Supt. Boothe reiterated that the district is not currently seeking a bond issue for the projects, and that GISD could budget for them in chunks on a year-to-year basis. However, she advocated for having the architectural plans ready by November, so that if an election is called, then voters would be able to view them.

"A lot of people said, 'If I see a design, I might be more willing to vote in favor,'" Boothe said. "With these informational meetings, we can let our educators and the community know that we're not building the Taj Mahal."

"The plans for L.P. Waters could also possibly be reused for a new elementary school," she added.

After their discussion, the council voted unanimously in favor of allocating $4.4 million out of the district's fund balance to work with Corgan Architects on the plans.

In other news, at the end of the meeting then-school board President Trena Stafford decided to step down "for a variety of reasons," and Aletha Kruse was elected the new president. Though no longer president, Stafford assured the trustees that she "wasn't going anywhere" and would still be active on the board.

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