BRENHAM SCHOOL BOARD TO CONTINUE DISCUSSION ON POTENTIAL BOND RECOMMENDATIONS
The Brenham School Board will hold a workshop on Thursday to further discuss and review possible bond recommendations from the district’s Bond Planning Committee.
At the board’s last meeting on January 18th, the committee recommended that Brenham ISD pursue completion of 13 major projects totaling nearly $154 million. Those include the construction of a new junior high school and the conversion of the current middle school into a fourth elementary school.
Plans presented at the board’s last meeting indicated the new junior high would house students grades 6-8, and all elementary schools would hold students in Pre-K through 5th grade.
Also at Thursday’s meeting, trustees will hold an executive session to consult with an attorney.
The board will meet Thursday at 6 p.m. at Brenham High School.
I’m completely confused now. Where are they proposing to build a “New” Jr High School? In the same location as the current one? Tear it down and start from scratch? Where will the students grades 6-8 go to school while the new one is being built? If they will build a new Jr High at a different location, then make the conversions after completion, then what is to become of the current Jr High building?
Per your request for information , here you go!
https://www.taxrates.org/texas/washington_county_property_tax
Washington County has one of the highest median property taxes in the United States, and is ranked 416th of the 3143 counties in order of median property taxes.
The average yearly property tax paid by Washington County residents amounts to about 3.71% of their yearly income. Washington County is ranked 313th of the 3143 counties for property taxes as a percentage of median income.
And to answer the question as to whether or not I have ever seen or toured the JR High, I graduated from BISD and that was my High School. It housed 4 grades when I attended. And we were able to use the lockers that now the JR High students do not have access to. They just have to carry the extremely heavy backpacks all day. I have grandchildren attending that school now. I just feel as though there may there should be options thrown out there instead of just saying we need new everything. Just because there would be a “new” building for the JR High doesn’t mean the taxes for the empty building will stop. The building has to be maintained even when empty. Inspections will continue to be performed, maintaining the Infrastructure will need to be conducted. It will remain a taxable for the citizens of Washington county. Just like the now Tax office. That used to be our classes for FFA.
Please accept my apology for the typographical errors on my behalf.
There is not going to be an empty building. The old junior high will be replaced with a new one.
MS, while I agree with the majority of your statement, I’m very interested to see the source of your claim that we have “the highest tax base per capita across the nation”. Can you please cite an article or link where we can find this information? I’ve done some cursory searches and haven’t found anything to support your claim but if I’m missing something, I’d sure like to know so that I can make a legitimate argument.
I for one will be voting against it. We already have the highest tax base per capita across the nation. Why would we vote to raise our taxes even more? New facilities don’t help the educators teach better, nor do the students learn any better in new buildings. How about figuring out a way to work with what you have and possible expand the three elementary schools. BISD already has a shortage in the staff. How the heck are they going to staff another school? There has to be additional administration, janitors, cafeteria workers, so forth and so on. It’s completely ridiculous to add another school and tax us even more.
This is a medium-small town in an otherwise rural area. We have a little bit of mineral wealth, but nothing crazy. There are bound to be sparsely-populated school districts in the Permian Basin with a larger tax base per capita. Please post a link to your data. Even if you were right, having a large tax base isn’t actually a problem. It means that the school district can get the same revenue from a lower tax rate. We should desire a larger tax base so that our tax rates can be lower.
You must have never taken a tour of the current Junior High. Expanding the three elementary schools won’t be cheap either. But hey, you keep kicking that can down the road.
It isn’t an additional school to maintain. They are replacing the current Jr High. Replacing the current Jr High isn’t a choice really, it’s a necessity.
The new junior high would replace the current building, so there would not be an additional school to staff.
School Board Members -Stop wasting time on a $154 million bond proposal. It will fail.