Tyler

By MEGAN MIDDLETON
Staff Writer

Tyler ISD is considering the purchase of property off of Chandler Highway near the Westwood Shopping Center as the site to build the new combined Jones Elementary and St. Louis School.

The superintendent will ask the Board of Trustees Thursday night to approve the purchase of the 14.4 acres of land for the new school that voters approved as part of the recent TISD bond election.

Trustees will meet at 7 p.m. Thursday in the Dr. Jack L. Davidson Conference Center in the Jim Plyler Instructional Complex, 807 W. Glenwood. The board will meet in closed session at 6 p.m.

Voters approved the $124.9 million TISD bond election on Nov. 4, authorizing the district to replace six campuses: Clarkston, Griffin, Jones, Orr and Woods elementary schools as well as the St. Louis School-Wayne D. Boshears

Center for Exceptional Programs, which is a school for students with special needs.

The land for the new joint school is located on Chandler Highway, also known as Texas Highway 31 West, behind the Westwood Shopping Center, near SSW Loop 323.

The district will pay $850,000 for the heavily wooded site, if the board approves the step. Funding for the property will come from bond proceeds.

"We identified a piece of property from the very beginning that we really thought was a good one," TISD Superintendent Dr. Randy Reid said of the site.

Reid said they wanted a piece of property in the Jones attendance area and one that was "highly accessible."

"This is right off of (State Highway) 31 and it will be very accessible," Reid said. "We believe we're going to be able to provide a couple of different entrances and exits to the building that will make traffic flow nice and smooth."

He said they hope to close on the land within the next couple of weeks, if the board approves the purchase.

"We're excited that we're going to be able to honor the tradition of both the Jones and Boshears facilities with a highly visible piece of property that we think will be able to serve the needs of the kids in Tyler for years to come and be very convenient," the superintendent said.

The current St. Louis building located on Walton Road will remain at that location and retain its St. Louis School name. Reid has said he refers to the new joint school as Jones-Boshears to help avoid any confusion since the St. Louis campus will remain where it is.

Reid has said previously that if the bond election passed, the program for students with special needs would serve as a center within the new Jones and still provide all the same services it does at its current facility.

This joint facility is also expected to increase the size of Jones. Reid has said Jones would be built as a 500-student model, which would provide more space for the future or for more magnet program options.

He has said the district is looking to use the existing St. Louis facility, with some minor modifications, as a Head Start/Pre-K center.

Officials have said the district would like to see as many of the new schools approved in the bond election open in fall 2010 as possible but that acquisition of land and design challenges may require more time for some projects.

The district needs new land for a Jones-Boshears campus as well as a new Griffin Elementary School.

Reid expects that if the board approves this purchase of land, the Jones-Boshears campus should open with the other schools.

"Unless we run into some problems after we get on there, we believe we should be in good shape to accomplish this building at the same time as the others," he said. "We're working diligently on the other piece (for Griffin Elementary) right now. If the piece we are working on comes to pass, which it should in the next couple of weeks, then that won't be a problem either."

Designs are still in the works for what the new joint Jones-Boshears school will look like, Reid said.

Construction

Manager-at-Risk

Trustees will also consider approving the selection of a construction manager-at-risk for projects in the bond program.

Eight firms were reviewed for the role, and three were interviewed. The TISD administration is recommending to the board that it approve Denson Construction Company Inc. as the construction manager-at-risk firm for the new Orr, Griffin, Woods and Jones-Boshears schools. RPR Construction Co. Inc. is the recommended company for the new Clarkston Elementary School.

The construction manager-at-risk is primarily responsible for managing and overseeing the construction process that occurs as well as handling, along with TISD staff, the bid processes from sub-contractors.

Both recommended companies also worked on the last bond program initiated in 2004.

"We really looked at these people's history of work with us as well as what they're current work schedules were because we know we're trying to do this work in a short span," Reid said. "We wanted to make sure that the companies that we used felt comfortable that they had the capability of managing this amount of work in a short span of time.

Reid added, "We felt good about the amount of work we are providing to these companies and we're also excited we can keep this work local and we have good quality general contractors here in town that we felt good about."

Reid also said that the district expects to hire a small team of people to help the district track the dollars spent and the construction processes. This two-to-three member team will essentially fill the role that The Staubach Company did during the construction process on the previous bond election in 2004.

FUND BALANCE

Also Thursday, trustees will consider designating fund balance dollars.

The district has an extra $7.45 million that it received because of adjustments in target revenue by the state and Average Daily Attendance (ADA) increases.

The district is requesting to place the $7.45 million in the following areas: $1.75 million for the district incentive program and rewards for performance; $350,000 for the addition of teachers in the fall of 2008 because of growth; $250,000 for the hiring of additional teachers for hard-to-find areas; $300,000 for C-SCOPE additional amount for campuses; $750,000 for the school bus replacement plan; $100,000 for bond election expense; $2 million for the Instructional Sustainment Fund; $1.6 million for unanticipated maintenance projects; and more than $350,000 for technology.

OTHER ITEMS

On Thursday, trustees will also consider approval of: 2008-09 amended budget; 2008 certified tax roll; sale of property for delinquent taxes; demolition of old Ramey Elementary; additional PDAS teacher appraiser; Adobe Software purchase; monthly financial executive summary; preventive maintenance annual report and a Career and Technical Education (CATE) update.

The board will also have a first reading of the TISD board audit committee charter and internal auditor charter.