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Buda Elementary SchoolPosted June 16, 2006, 12:45 a.m.
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BUDA – Old town Buda residents who want their city elementary school to stay as is couldn't have been encouraged at the Hays CISD Trustees meeting on June 13. Even Tommy Poer disagrees with them.
Poer, the elderly Buda gadfly known for her routine distaste for local government initiatives, stood before the trustees and told them she likes the plan to expand Buda Elementary School's lower campus, which would close the historic upper campus. Meanwhile, Buda resident Jeff Robinson, who has led a group of citizens opposed to the plan, said he remains concerned about adding density to the lower campus while shutting down the city landmark up the hill.
Trustees are likely to call a $51 million bond election that would include $10 million to renovate the lower campus. The election, which probably will be called on August 1 and conducted in November, would ask voters to approve the bonds, which stands to be an easy sell because local property value growth would fund the debt without requiring a tax increase.
It's unlikely the school district will repeat a successful strategy in 2001 and 2004 bond elections by breaking the bond into discrete propositions. Trustee Patti Wood, serving in her first meeting, said bond proponents are concerned that such a division would amount to having voters decide on improvements to Buda schools in one case and Kyle schools in the other.
Poer said she moved to Buda in 1957 and put her children through the old elementary school. Regardless of her affection for the present arrangement, she said she likes the school district administration's ideas about expanding the lower campus.
"I think the plan for the lower campus is a good plan and that's money well spent," Poer told the board.
Robinson, who went with a group of concerned parents to tour the coming elementary school at Science Hall for the sake of comparison, said he still isn't convinced the lower campus plan is for the best. He said his group's "general impression was excess," after seeing the Science Hall facilities. Robinson also questioned if the lower campus can accommodate 700 students, which close to doubles the number of students presently using the facility.
"I really feel that the upper campus has acted as an institution in old town Buda," Robinson said. "Nothing else that has lasted like that. It gives old town Buda a real historical institution. I think we're jeopardizing losing that if we shut that campus down."
The school district hasn't decided what will become of the upper campus once it no longer functions as an elementary school.
Hays CISD Trustee Ralph Pfluger of Manchaca joked that he and Buda Trustee Henry Altmiller haven't decided who's got jurisdiction over Buda Elementary, saying he's probably got the lower campus and Altmiller has the upper campus. But Pfluger also said he supports rebuilding the lower campus for serious reasons.
"We had five children and 11 grandchildren go through Buda Elementary School, so I do have a lot of feelings about it," Pfluger said. "I've thought about this a lot and I support rebuilding on the lower campus. First of all, we’re not going to destroy the upper campus. Being on the school board, we don't build for the past. We build for the future."
Altmiller added that the remodeling is best for Buda Elementary students, saying it doesn't make sense that Science Hall students will have CO2 detectors while Buda Elementary students would have to go without sufficient electrical outlets to utilize today's technological options.
"We need to have a situation where we don't have to worry about overloading the electrical system," Altmiller said.
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