portraits
» AMARILLO ISD
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For Amarillo ISD School Board President Jim Austin, it was a
cluster of experiences at AISD schools which not only made him
cringe, but solidifi ed what he already knew. Many buildings were
in disrepair and the District’s patchwork approach to repairs that
had worked for so long wasn’t working any longer.
“In 2016, as we were beginning to develop a thought about a
renovation of our schools, I went to an event at Amarillo High.
I noticed not only was the auditorium dated, but the stage was
dirty, the curtains torn and it just had a disheveled, unfi nished
look,” Jim recalls. “Then I went to the restroom and there were
fi ve urinals on the wall with no partitions. Of four sinks, one
didn’t work and three had buckets underneath that were full of
water that had leaked out.”
The eye-opening encounters continued to plague Jim, who
is in schools monthly as part of his board duties. During a visit
to Lamar Elementary, the combination of rain and sewer issues
left the playground completely submerged in water. A trip to
Olsen Park Elementary revealed structural issues with the school.
“Doors don’t close. Refrigerators are obviously cantered over
to one side or another. If you sit in a chair, you begin to roll
downhill,” he recounts. “I thought surely the school district can
do better than this.”
The Impossible Becomes Possible
Nearly 80 percent of AISD schools are more than 50 years old.
Over the years, the District has maintained upkeep by spending
and committing more than $57 million from the general fund
for projects. “We’re lucky we’ve worked on it as we’ve gone along
all these years. Our problems aren’t so huge that we just can’t do
anything about them,” says Jim.
Individually, as Jim noted, the problems weren’t that huge. But
the combined tally of needs was. In December 2016, the Board
directed staff to conduct a thorough assessment of needs at all
of AISD’s 55 aging schools. The result was a $330 million list
of repairs, replacement, renovations and additions. “It literally
seemed like it was impossible. But looking at what I had seen of
our schools, it was clearly something our District had to take on.”
Jim and the rest of the Board set to work crunching numbers,
prioritizing projects and creating a $100 million bond package
they could confi dently present to taxpayers. In November, the
bond passed. Fifty-fi ve percent of voters agreed to put their trust
and tax dollars into four main areas: safety & security, classroom
additions, facility updates and modernized infrastructure.
Blueprint For Progress
Carrying out the expectations entrusted to AISD by voters
now lies largely in the hands of AISD’s Chief Operations Offi cer
Brent Hoover, who, along with a Board bond committee, will
oversee the process. There’s a chart, graph or blueprint in Brent’s
binder for every phase and project. The fi rst order of business
was to hire a bond construction director and a project manager,
whose salaries are included in the bond budget, to make sure the
specifi cations and scope of projects are completed on time, on
budget and per specifi cation.
Four architect fi rms were hired in January to serve as project
architects, each designing a portion of the total bond package.
Construction is expected to begin in the fall at Fannin Middle
School with 12 new classrooms, remodeled bathrooms, a secured
entrance and modernization of much of the campus. The drainage
issue at Lamar Elementary is next in line. Projects are prioritized
by need and complexity. The Fannin revamp, for example, takes
into account expected growth in southeast Amarillo and the need
to have those new classrooms sooner, rather than later.
Every project funded by the bond is expected to be completed
by 2021. “The timeline is aggressive, but achievable,” says Brent,
who points out projects are also strategically staggered within that
timeline. “That is done to make sure the Amarillo workforce can
accommodate $100 million worth of construction. We stagger the
start times so we don’t overload contractors and subcontractors
with too much work at one time.”
For Jim Austin and the AISD School Board, the bond is a
blueprint for progress. He looks forward to changes that will
give students and the community school facilities that match the
quality of education AISD delivers.
“People have a tendency to respond to a crisis and in our view,
we have a crisis. Thanks to the community, we’re going to be able
to deal with issues that we couldn’t have fi xed any other way,” says
Jim. “I’m so very grateful to our community for their patience
and for allowing us to move forward and make all our schools
great places to work, teach and learn.”
RE-BUILDING AISD
District’s $100 Million Voter-Approved School Bond Goes to Work
“I’m so very grateful to our community for their patience and for allowing us to move
forward and make all our schools great places to work, teach and learn.”
—AISD School Board President Jim Austin