There are a lot of single reasons, but the broad strokes are this.. 1) CISD hasn't been able to do a good job of teaching the kids with the tools they've got. CISD student test scores are, on average, pretty low when compared to the rest of the state of Texas. If you can't get the job done right, then you don't get the nifty toys like a shiny new high school and a big sports plex.
2) The CISD administration and the school board have a lousy history when it comes to responsible spending of taxpayer money. The school board showed extremely bad judgement when they approved $245,000 for a concession stand.. A CONCESSION STAND! over at Wheat Middle School, that later had costs go up to $277,000 according to the Cleburne Times Review, and FOIA requests show may have actually cost as much as $318,000 dollars. That is insane. First, the school board are supposed to act as a check against irresponsible spending, and shop around on these projects. They haven't done that once. In Cleburne that much money would buy you a three story house with a garage and a pool on several acres of land, but Cleburne ISD built a hot dog stand on land already owned by the school. Either the construction company screwed the school knowing that the school board was too dumb to question their numbers, or someone got kickbacks or ran with the money. Regardless, who can google Cleburne real estate prices can figure out pretty quick that spending that much for a hot dog stand that will be used 8 times a year is just nuts.
Then take the last school bond promotion, for $150 Million Dollars. The school just HAD to HAVE a new football stadium. Oh, but now, it's all about the kids, and a new school. Never, in the description of their plans for the money, do you hear the phrase 'Sports Plex', but that is exactly what they want to build, in addition to the new high school. The taxpayers voted that last bond down, and not a year later the school administration and bond consultants start new meetings for a new bond almost as big. How many times do we have to say no?
3) and the top reason not to pass this bond, really, is this. The current high school is not out of space, and won't be near capacity for a decade. Go to a school board meeting, when ALL the school board members are there, and ask them which one of them did walk throughs to verify space constraints at the high school. Ask them about the studies done that show negative growth for the next few years, and limited numbers after that, such that the high school won't be at capacity for 10 years. They'll walk you through it all.
We'll get into the detailed reasons here in further posts, but those are the broad strokes, and it gets down to to this.. Dear Cleburne ISD administration and School Board.. we just don't believe you any more, we don't have faith that you'll spend out money effectively, and we don't believe that a school system that can't do a good job of educating the kids already needs a shiny new sports plex or high school that will do nothing to resolve that issue, and certainly not for $232 Million Dollars after interest.
You should all be aware that so far the school has spent roughly $120,000 of your money to promote this scam to you, and is bending a few rules doing it. Big signs promoting the bond that 'look' like they are on school property, an upcoming rally promoting the bond with early voting onsite, teachers and administrators with conflicts of interest promoting the bond and manipulating taxpayers at the steering committee, all of that is illegal.. my personal opinion is that this is a criminal enterprise, with someone pulling strings behind this thing in order to embezzle a few million on the back end, but that's just my opinion. They could just be that incompetent.
You should also be aware, that other than those nifty pictures on the school and bond website, there are no plans, architectural drawings, design plans, nothing, created so far as plans for how the money will be spent. The superintendent told the Lions Club the other day, 'We'll go through a design phase when we get the money, those pictures you see on the website are just an 'artist's rendering''. Wow. So basically, you're bein sold 2 pictures, for.. $130 Million Dollars. Once they get the money, they can do anything they want with it, there is no oversight from anyone into how the money is spent. Do you think that a school board that approved a $245,000 hot dog stand that went over budgets is going to keep an eye on the money so no one steals it? I doubt it.
Vote this thing down folks, it. is. a. SCAM.
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