For the second time during the current academic year, an East Texas public school district has failed to garner voter approval for a bond package, according to a report from Tyler ABC affiliate KLTV.
The station reported that the Pittsburg Independent School District’s (PISD) $88 million bond proposal didn’t succeed at the ballot box earlier this month, just six months after the first failed attempt.
Superintendent Terry Waldrep told KLTV that the most recent bond package focused on a new campus for Pittsburg High School, which is more than 50 years old.
With several exterior buildings comprising the present school, the station reported, Waldrep hoped the bond would’ve consolidated everything.
“The bond was going to help us to address that, bringing that all in under one roof to make it a lot more easy to be able to supervise and to control,” the superintendent said in the report.
According to KLTV, PISD is continuing to concentrate on safety and security.
“Obviously we’re going to meet the compliances from the state,” Waldrep told the station. “But also, at the same time, we’re making improvements on our own.”
The state provided the district, which serves virtually all of Camp County and parts of Upshur and Wood counties, funding for security upgrades, including new fencing at its elementary and intermediate campuses, KLTV reported.
Per a report from the station last month, had the bond been approved, Pittsburg Junior High School would’ve had a new cafeteria built to provide more space during lunch periods as well as a new sixth grade wing.
Also included in the package was a road that sought to connect all PISD campuses and a new gymnasium for the intermediate campus.
Waldrep told KLTV the district remains committed to addressing its needs.
“Obviously the needs aren’t going to go away magically and we’ve got to find a solution for it; we’ll go back and evaluate all of it and look at the needs that our district has as far as trying to provide the best for our students,” he said.
PISD is at least 55 miles northeast of Tyler.
