Grassroots Group Continues to Fight Bond Issue

TYLER — Grassroots America – We the People is giving Tyler ISD officials a failing grade on facility planning. Grassroots America has already come out against the school district’s November bond proposal. Now Executive Director JoAnn Fleming says, “It is time for some answers from TISD officials! Documents on TISD’s own website prove the point Grassroots America has been making about Tyler ISD’s ill-conceived $145 million bond package. Tyler ISD and the Vote Yes Committee are asking the taxpayers to just trust the district again and vote themselves more debt. Information we’ve discovered leaves us no choice but to give the District a failing grade on its facility planning, and to declare that we now are in a place where we simply can no longer trust the direction Tyler ISD’s leaders are taking us.”

Fleming continues, “After analyzing information found on Tyler ISD’s own website under the “Bond 2010” section and documents we requested from the District, we found that eight out of sixteen elementary schools or 50% of the elementary school construction projects passed in 2004, 2008 and proposed in this 2010 bond package will be at capacity or overcrowded in less than five years! That is unacceptable and a good way to lose the trust of the people! To imagine that these new schools may soon have portables sitting outside them is shocking.

“We also discovered that in spite of the fact that TISD is saying this bond election will “finish the elementary schools” and begin the middle schools, they’ve neglected to tell us that based on the size schools we are building and the consulting report they have posted in the bond information section of their website, the district will need at least two more elementary schools by 2013! It is now abundantly clear to that this “pay me now and we’ll give you the details later” plan is WRONG! It is wrong for the taxpaying families and businesses, wrong for the teachers, wrong for the parents, and wrong for the school children of Tyler ISD.”

Vote Yes Committee spokesman Andy Bergfeld responds that if the schools do go over capacity, it can be dealt with when it happens — perhaps by building more schools. He even says that would be a good thing — that it would mean the school district is growing and doing some things right. Bergfeld adds, “We know overcrowding is an issue – that is why we need to stay the course and build these schools. They come with no tax increase.” Also, TISD says the actual bond cost is about $89.8 million.