CCISD superintendent discusses future bond, district facility needs strategy
By LYNETTE SOWELL
Cove Leader-Press
This week, Brent Hawkins, CCISD superintendent, spoke about the need for a “reset” where district facilities are concerned, in his latest installment of “Take 2 with Hawk”.
He said he wanted to touch base on a question that keeps recurring as he encounters people in the community.
“Whether it’s at a meet and greet or if it’s morning Bible study, if it’s meeting one on one with administrators or parents or Golden Dawgs, it does not take long before the question comes up about what’s going to happen in regard to the bond,” Hawkins acknowledged.
“We’re really trying to go back and hit a reset with our facility plans. I think anybody can clearly see that we’re a district poised to continue to grow. The numbers of the demographic study were about 1.8 to 2 percent per year.
“We have aging facilities. We have facilities that are entering the last phase of their lifespan. So, we have a growing population with aging facilities that will definitely need to be put into a long-range facility plan.”
One thing Hawkins has noted is that some of the district facilities were not set up to take care of some of the career tech programs that the district has, such as culinary arts that are requiring more things in the classroom than what the district can currently provide.
“Some of our areas in the district, we are already at a point to where we’re at capacity or over capacity, so we have to go through our planning process and address these things from a long-term perspective,” he added.
“We begin a data study, doing tabletop audits of our facilities, looking at our documentation. And we’re going to be involving our architect within the next couple weeks, which will be a new architect with a with a fresh set of eyes. We’re going to let that person kind of get their brain wrapped around all of the tangibles of our facility footprint,” Hawkins said. Prior to the May 2024 bond, the district had engaged the services of RBDR out of Waco, for pre-bond architectural services.
Hawkins said that after discussions with the new architect, the district will be “reconvening” the facility committee in late March and having discussions and prioritization with them.
After the facility committee reconvenes, Hawkins said that the community should be ready to share their input.
“You can look sometime, probably in the month of April to May, that the community will be invited to participate in an online survey where we can compile some data as well,” he said.
“It is my intention that there will be in the months of April, May, June and July, town hall type meetings where we are focusing on one aspect, whether it be facilities, whether it be school finance…we will air the content out there so that you can look at those things, as well as the location and time. And then, there will be question and answer from the superintendent and staff on things that the community wants to know.
“We invite you to participate in that. We invite you to give us your input. You know our schools belong to the community. They’re your schools, your children, and your money, and we want to make sure that we have your voice encapsulated in that so that we can move forward and be the district of choice and represent the community in the fashion that really puts us in a situation where one of the premier districts in Central Texas, and the state of Texas.”
This latest update from the superintendent is part of his 90-day entry plan, as part of the “listening and learning” element.
Part of the plan is also providing updates to the board of trustees along the way, and Hawkins also plans to give a formal report at the conclusion of each phase of his entry plan.
At this point, there is no bond in the foreseeable future for CCISD. The May 2024 $175 million bond election lost by 69 votes, 1,261 to 1,192, or 51.41 percent to 48.59 percent.
There was a committee picked by the district to craft the bond proposal, but there were not town halls or other community input prior to the trustees calling for the election.
The bond called for additional classrooms at the high school, a new cafeteria, expanding the band hall, new facilities for softball and baseball, a covered practice field, a marching area for the band, and at other campuses, enclosing outdoor walkways at Williams-Ledger Elementary, Fairview-Jewell Elementary, and Clements-Parsons Elementary, and also expanding the Copperas Cove Junior High School cafeteria and adding restrooms. The district’s remaining payment for the bond issued in 2005 will be paid off this year.