BISD needs to show more numbers on bond sooner

By CHRISTOPHER CLAUSEN
October, 18, 2009

Wednesday's meeting in the Jefferson County Jury Impaneling Room should draw a crowd.

The goal of that 3:30 p.m. assembly is a reconfigured Beaumont school board that is more responsive to taxpayers.

The group needs 12,000 signatures on a petition to get an election they must win, and a school board attorney advises, the U.S. Justice Department's approval.

The spark for the petitioners is the delay in the construction of eight elementary schools, as promised in the successful campaign for a $388.6 million school bond.

Thursday's school board meeting gave them more impetus.

To date, a few smaller bond projects are finished and a lot of money spent on the multipurpose athletic facility.

The school board approved Thursday $994,625 for two scoreboards and a marquee sign at the site. The original budget was $100,000 for one scoreboard at a $29 million athletic facility, but now is at $43 million, a 48 percent increase on the original budget.

It's not a complete surprise. BISD said from the start it would take on the biggest projects because of inflation.

What continues to surprise taxpayers is that BISD officials still don't understand how much taxpayers want to know about changes to bond projects well before the school board votes on them.

Thursday Superintendent Carrol Thomas said he was initially surprised by the increased scoreboard costs, but the perspective advertising revenue sold him.

District Athletic Director Rodney Saveat said BISD has commitments from two companies and interest from more.

"This will more than pay for itself," Thomas told the board Thursday night.

Well, perspective contracts went out with Enron Field.

Also, consider the two-sided electronic marquee at Ford Park, Jefferson County's boondoggle of a civic center. That sign also was sold as an advertising money maker. It isn't.

Thomas also said that bond money might not pay for the signs' initial costs.

He suggested they be purchased with general revenue money, which normally covers classroom instruction, overall salaries and maintenance; a loan from an undetermined source of money; or some mix of general revenue and bond money.

It is that type of uncertainty that fuels taxpayer dissent.

When the cost jumps that much after all the other disappointments so far in the bond, why did BISD not present this issue sooner to the public or with much more information to support its case?

The district should have financial data and contracts from other districts with similar deals to show that advertising can pay for the signs. Those are hard numbers that will sell the taxpayer.

And why does BISD not have a financial plan to pay for this before the board approves it?

BISD's Web site has progress reports on the bond's projects. As of Friday, the last report was dated Sept. 3 and in a Power Point format, rather than the common PDF format used in the 20 previous reports.

Wednesday's crowd wants more information from BISD and will resort to politics to get it, and so far, BISD officials seem resigned to that fate.


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