The San Marcos CISD Board of Trustees met on Feb. 6 in a specially called meeting to hear from its Facilities Committee regarding preliminary recommendations for changes and improvements to several of the district’s campuses.
With these recommendations, the board may now choose to move forward in the process of drafting bond language for consideration in presenting building improvements and maintenance goals to voters in San Marcos.
During the meeting, Bernie Sandoval III, SMCISD executive director of operations with oversight of building and grounds, introduced SMCISD Facilities Committee Chairman Michael Pigg, who then offered the superintendent and the board a slide presentation summary of the committee’s recent activities and decisions for campus improvements across the district.
Pigg is a local pastor known here for his work with the School Fuel program to provide lunches to students. He reviewed for the board the outcomes of a series of meetings, campus visits and interviews conducted throughout January to assess data collected from campus tours and insights from administrators as to the needs of their schools.
“So, those were good conversations. For the most part very informative,” Pigg said, adding, “We talked about educational assessment, physical assessment and financial assessment.”
“The four biggest concerns were security, equity across the district, future readiness and academic vision,” Pigg said.
The committee recommended that the board look to draft language that could include renovations at Hernandez Elementary School, a new Mendez Elementary School K-8, a band and theater room addition for Goodnight Middle School, a Miller Middle School athletic addition and renovation, improvements at the high school to address capacity and a performing arts additions, and a natatorium for the district.
Pigg, who accepted a committee position based on an invitation from Superintendent Michael Cardona, related the exploration taken by the committee to initially examine at least six levels of options arrived at in conjunction with Perkins & Will, an architectural services company working with the district to provide the feasibility studies in advance of committee work.
Pigg defined the process from its overview, to the refinement of the previously identified potential improvement options, and concluded the summary with specific goals for facility improvements. At the time of his presentation, approximately 20 committee members were voting on those recommendations.
Board members thanked the committee for its efforts to thoroughly vet the feasibility studies with community insights, with members stating that it would take the recommendations under consideration for further action.
Specifically, Goodnight Middle School received a recommendation for a theatre arts addition with a blackbox classroom to be situated adjacent to the Band Hall. At the San Marcos High School, a series of performing arts renovations could include band room changes, with a Mariachi Program room and support space, an addition of a dance studio and a blackbox theater/ classroom and support space. All but one of the committee members involved at the end of the process were in support of both the proposed changes at Goodnight and the high school. Similarly, a vote to determine whether an outdoor pool or a natatorium should be constructed was heavily in favor of the natatorium as opposed to an outdoor pool, he said.
For what is called Option B1, the committee offered an initially projected price tag of $166,187,957, with some details regarding how this could possibly affect the tax rate in the future. Potentially the tax rate could increase if a bond of this size is put to the voters for consideration and it passes. The argument presented by the committee in support of the recommendations was that a band-aid approach to improvements was not enough in 2023 when the best scenarios for students was addressed.
Pigg emphasized that with the recommendation for change, the Mendez Elementary School would continue to serve the community as a K-5 program with a necessary dual language option for older students who would not interact with younger students. Any district student wishing to continue their dual language curriculum from grade 6-8 would have the opportunity to attend courses at this Mendez 6-8 program based on available capacity.
Other areas addressed during the committee’s efforts included assessments of financial stewardship, current and future capacity needs, the potential for large maintenance projects, the inclusion of the growth of innovative programs, as well as considering the ability of the district to be competitive with other districts in years to come. There was generally little support for options that were considered bandaid approaches such as no improvement for the Mendez campus or simply additions or renovations at the Mendez campus, he said.
Pigg said it was important for committee members to reach out to the community outside of meetings and tours, in an effort to talk to as many people as possible. Gaining feedback like this, he explained, assisted the committee in meeting its purpose of addressing all criteria, including the board and district’s vision for success, an update of the financial state of the district, an assessment of the demographic growth and a perspective related to the academic aspirations of all involved in the effort.
“We were charged with representing the community,” he said, noting that it was a painstaking effort to reach out in this way to most adequately determine future needs of the students in San Marcos.
