Bond elections are one area of control the Lewisville Independent School District has over its finances. These monies help build and maintain our buildings and technology.
The last bond election was in 2008 for $697 million dollars. I personally was against this bond, not that our kids don’t deserve the best, they certainly do, but this bond package promised more than it could give and now that the money is about to run out, many of us are left wondering why our classrooms were never built.
The truth is, the wording on the bond never promised anything to anyone, it was essentially a blank check to the district. This bond election was the catalyst to move me from a parent of an elementary student to a frequent visitor and speaker at school board meetings.
Last year, LISD formed a facilities committee, a group of community members, including myself, who volunteered their time to look at the buildings LISD owns and produce a budget to maintain those buildings. As committee members we were invited to walk the buildings and talk with their principals or managers about what their individual needs were.
A special thanks to Representatives from PBK Architects for walking each and every building while keeping organized notes for us to refer back to. Every wish was documented in what ended up being many 3 inch binders worth of information.
The committee sat down over several months and prioritized those wishes. By the time the final calculations were made, LISD’s wishes totaled approximately $500 million dollars to repair or replace our current buildings. I anticipate LISD calling another bond election within the next three years.
Over the years, I have listened when our communities were upset over how money was spent. What was promised and what was received did not match.
If elected, I will work to make the next bond election one you can stand behind as a community, one with transparency of where money will be spent, complete with blueprints that will point out when current structures, fields and parking lots need to be rebuilt because they are in the way of future classrooms.
Our previous boards have said it shouldn’t be done. At the last school board meeting, Carol Kyer pointed out the district lawyers discourage promising exactly where the money would be spent in case changes needed to be made. Though I respect the lawyers, I would challenge they are hired to keep the district out of legal trouble, however, the board is elected by the taxpayers and should represent their best interests.
If the district does not know exactly where it needs to spend money, they should not be asking for it in the first place! Before I ask the community to approve a bond, it will be one the community will be proud to support.
Paige Shoven
Candidate for LISD Board of Trustees, Place 3
Lewisville, TX
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