CCISD board of trustees call for $175 million May 4 bond election

By LYNETTE SOWELL

Cove Leader-Press

During its regular meeting on Tuesday evening, the Copperas Cove Independent School District board of trustees voted unanimously to call for a $175 million bond election to be held on May 4.

The vote came after a presentation given by representatives of a 34-member facilities committee shared recommendations that came about after meetings held since November 2021, touring a number of the district campuses, and more.

The bond, to be called Proposition A, will include Copperas Cove High School renovations and expansion; district-wide renovations and upgrades; safety and security upgrades; and athletics facilities relocation, according to a press release issued by the district on Tuesday evening.

The presentation at the meeting elaborated on what the projects will include at Copperas Cove High School.

These are adding additional classroom space and science labs, renovating existing classrooms and restroom facilities, flipping the layout of the campus so the main entrance is on Avenue D, expanding the cafeteria to accommodate current student population and projected growth, expanding the band hall to include additional practice rooms for the growing band program, and adding student dressing rooms for programs lacking appropriate space.

A new cafeteria could seat an additional 1,000 students indoors and add 1,000 seats for outdoor dining, and expand to 10 serving lines, according to the presentation.

The bond expenditures would also include security and safety enhancements districtwide, such as enclosing outdoor walkways at Williams-Ledger Elementary, Fairview-Jewell Elementary, and Clements-Parsons Elementary. Other upgrades would include ensuring ADA accommodations for all students and staff, as there are several campuses with ADA issues.

The bond would also fund dedicated classroom space for each CCISD instructor, as the presentation pointed out that there are approximately 30 instructors at CCHS without homerooms, including all Special Education inclusion teachers.

Other campuses seeing renovations will include the Miss Jewell wing of Fairview-Jewell Elementary, and also expanding the Copperas Cove Junior High School cafeteria and adding restrooms.

The district has not had a bond since 2005.

Per the district, the estimated impact would be $27.81 per month for a home valued at $200,000, the average market value for a home in Copperas Cove ISD.

Disabled veterans or surviving spouses of a member of the U.S. armed services killed in the line of duty would not see an increase in taxes, even with the passing of the bond, if the disabled veteran was awarded 100 percent disability compensation due to a service-connected disability and a rating of 100 percent disabled or of individual unemployability to a total property tax exemption on the disabled veteran's residence homestead.

“We want to make sure that our community is well-informed with the facts around this bond proposal,” Dr. Burns said. “We will send out information by mail, email, and social media with factual information about the bond propositions.”