VOL 5 ·ISSUE 12
WALKER COUNTY
PRESS
PRSRT STD US Postage PAID Permit #60 WINNIE, TX
Thursday January 21, 2021
M L K P a r a d e Tr a v e l s HISD Trustees Explore Adding to Long Range Plan T h r o u g h H u n t s v i l l e
Proposed athletics plans will be discussed at a HISD Trustees meeting tonight, Thursday, January 21, 2021 By Wade Thibodeaux The Huntsville ISD Board of Trustees met in a special workshop on Thursday, January 7, 2021 to review and discuss the HISD long range plan. Some of the meeting was a review of previously presented plans for the realignment of grade levels and major renovations to the Districts buildings, but a new twist was added to the mix in the form of a separate bond initiative for an athletics complex. The original long range plan was a $92 Million bond election that would provide a rather extensive face lift to the aging and inadequate facilities within the District and the newly discussed athletics plan would add another
$30-35 Million for new athletics facilities that include a 7,000 person capacity football stadium, new softball and baseball fields, relocation of the tennis courts, and all of the support buildings for those sports. The original long range plan called for realignment of grades to provide for three main groups. Pre-K through 5th grade would be housed in four Elementary campuses, Mance Park Junior High would absorb 6th grade, and the High School would remain 9th grade through 12th grade. Superintendent Scott Sheppard commented during the workshop that the proposed changes would benefit the District on several levels, including
improved instructional situations, more pay for teachers because a large portion of the operations budget would not be used for maintenance on decaying infrastructure, and student programs would also benefit. The realignment would eliminate Huntsville Intermediate School and Gibbs Pre-k, both campuses being repurposed for other duties. HIS would be converted to Scott Johnson Elementary School with the existing Scott Johnson being renovated into a community center and Gibbs Pre-K becoming a support and learning center, replacing the current support and learning center at Mance Park which will be converted into additional classrooms. A
Decorated trailers and lots of horses were in the MLK Day parade that wound its way through the streets of Huntsville Monday. By Wade Thibodeaux The annual MLK Day parade made its way through the streets of Huntsville Monday morning and consisted of decorated cars and trucks, trailers, classic cars, horses, and four wheelers. The parade started at the Sam
Houston Cultural Center and traveled along 10th street towards Sam Houston Avenue. The group traveled South on Sam Houston for a block and then turned East onto 11th street and made its way down 11th street until the intersection of MLK
Drive. The parade then turned North on MLK until it reached its destination of Emancipation Park. An online celebration of MLK Day began at Noon with several community leaders presenting programs and providing musical entertainment.
new performing arts center would be constructed at the High School. While a $127 Million bond seems a lot to absorb, HISD financial guru Paul Brown told the trustees that the timing was right for these projects as interest rates are at all time lows, the District is growing, and he projects that all of these bond initiatives could be accomplished for only a $0.1086 increase in the tax rate. The District has
lowered the tax rate for the last several years, increased teacher pay for the last three years, and building new structures and renovating old structures for only a dime increase in the tax rate would help the District by reducing the maintenance and upkeep cost and allow the District to be more competitive in teacher pay and other programs. A potential May election was discussed, but no action was
taken at this workshop because it was only a workshop and not an official meeting. Trustees will meet in their regular monthly meeting tonight(Thursday, January 21, 2021) in which an agenda item calls for action on adding the athletics plan into the overall long range plan. Walker County Press will report on the outcome of that meeting in next week’s paper.