(Geronimo) — Voters in the Navarro ISD may have approved the elbow room needed for future growth in the classroom but stopped short in agreeing to a new $30 million Sports Complex.
Voters on Tuesday said “yes” to Proposition A totaling $130 million in bonds for a new high school, elementary school and for the purchase of future land.
Many of those same voters, however, turned down Proposition B which called for the construction of a new sports complex which would have included a new football stadium, baseball and softball fields plus tennis courts.
A total of 776 votes totaling 55.91 percent of the votes were cast in favor of Proposition A while 612, or 44.09 percent, of the votes were cast against it.
The margin for Navarro ISD’s Proposition B remained close for most of the night but again, in the end came up short with 760 or 54.87 percent of the votes cast against it and only 625 or 45.13 percent of the votes were cast in favor of the athletic complex.
Navarro ISD Superintendent Wendi Russell says while she would have liked to have seen the district celebrate the passage of both propositions, she is grateful that more classroom space has been ensured for the district’s future.
“We have heartfelt gratitude to our voters for supporting the district and passing Proposition A. We want the best for our students and this bond does ensure that our kids have the best learning environment possible for years to come and tonight’s (Tuesday’s) results definitely represent the end of the election but only the beginning of a lot of work ahead of us and although Proposition B failed, we will remain committed to providing the students at Navarro ISD the best experiences possible with athletics,” said Russell.
Russell says unfortunately, the needs of the district’s athletic department will still exist. However, she says those needs won’t be coming off the table anytime soon.
“I believe that with the growth our community is experiencing and it’s not going to slow down anytime soon — that we will definitely need to come back and revisit this. We will need to regroup and determine the best way to address the facility needs,” said Russell.
Like Russell, Navarro ISD Board President Renee Rehfeld also thanks voters for coming out and showing their support.
“I just want to thank the Navarro community for getting out and voting. I’m so grateful to everyone that voted for Prop A for the bond. I thank the community for recognizing that we have unprecedented growth that we are trying to deal with and it is coming to the district — it is here — and for showing confidence and leadership in order to pass the bond for Prop A knowing how much it is needed. So, I couldn’t be more excited for Prop A getting passed,” said Rehfeld.
As for Proposition B, Rehfeld says she believes the community really didn’t grasp this part of the overall plan. She says perhaps voters thought the sports complex was just about playing surfaces for competition or just about wanting to build a brand new stadium.
“Seeing Prop B not pass was a little disheartening but listening to Darren (Dunn, general manager of Seguin Radio KWED) throughout the evening talk about how it’s not uncommon at other school districts for sometimes an athletic complex to not pass on the first go, I think what it says is that there’s still a lot of education that still needs to be done with the community. I am not sure that the community really realizes that the current complex that we have is for 640 students and when we build the new high school at 1,100, you’ve got all of those students, parents, grandparents and everything that will not be able to be accommodated in our current facilities and I also don’t know that there is a clear understanding for the athletic teams — their classroom space is the sports complex and so now you are going to have a high school located across Link Road and having those kids travel back and forth to a facility that is away from the high school,” said Rehfeld.
Rehfeld says the district will simply have to go back and think about how it wants to proceed from this point forward.
“I think walking away from this evening, we have to be proud of the community for stepping up and putting the confidence in the district to say that we believe in what’s needed for Prop A and we will revisit Prop B. You know, there is still time for that to still be built and open with the new high school and to go back out to the public with it. We’ll just see where we stand with that,” said Rehfeld.
The voter approved Proposition A will include a new $90 million high school. Once up and running, the current high school campus will go on to serve as the district’s new middle school. The school will include a capacity of 1,100 students and will also offer a 750 seat fine arts theater.
The $35 million new elementary school will serve as a second elementary level campus for the district. It will be built to serve up to 750 students. Proposition A also includes $5 million for the purchase of nearby property which is said to be currently under negotiations. Also include in Proposition A is the purchase of new school buses for all the additional routes that district officials say will need to be added in the future.
The proposed bonds by the district were in response to fast rapid growth. District officials state that the Navarro ISD will “likely build 350 to 500 homes a year for the next three to five years. There are also approximately 1,300 lots currently under development and expected to be delivered in the next 12 to 18 months. Growth projections also indicate that the Navarro ISD will enroll almost 4,400 students by 2030-2031.