Sweet Home ISD holds first facilities meeting, aims for May bond election

  • The gymnasium roof and floor have reached their life expectancies
    The gymnasium roof and floor have reached their life expectancies

    Sweet Home Independent School District (SHISD) held its first facilities meeting Tuesday, Sept. 26, where they discussed a potential bond project happening by May 2024 which includes several renovations and enhanced campus security.

    “The board and the previous superintendent knew there were some facilities renovations we needed to start looking at,” Superintendent Candace Pohl said. “We think we really want to go out for a bond and the first part of that was starting our facilities planning committee. Our community members and our parents all have a stake in this. There were roughly 25 people who attended the meeting. The feedback was very positive.”

    Members from RMA Architects out of Victoria came and looked at the property and noted a few things needing to be addressed

    “At the meeting, we looked at some of the highlights of the architect’s assessment,” Pohl said. “The assessment showed some drainage issues, building age issues, and some problems with our roofs. When you think at how old some of the buildings are, that kind of makes sense.”

    The oldest building at Sweet Home is the main office, which was built in the 1930s.

    Some of the biggest drainage issues are over by the cafeteria. SHISD also wants to increase the size of the cafeteria. The gymnasium roof and floor have reached their life expectancies, and neither are energy efficient, according to the district.

    The sidewalk to the playground is not as accessible as they would like it, either. Also included as a possible bond project are several security improvements.

    “Security is a very valid thing for us to think about,” Pohl said. “With new safety requirements, they really want us to funnel everybody into one entrance and one exit. We don’t have that type of thing here, so we’ll be thinking about that as well. We also have additional land, about 17 acres, so we can utilize that. I hope to start narrowing it down, there’s certainly a lot of priorities.”

    “It’ll be a process, but it’ll be a fast process if we’re going out for a bond in May. I would rather spend our maintenance and operations money on instructional resources for the kids and retaining our highquality teachers, so we’ll need this bond,” she said.

    There are two more facilities meetings scheduled for late October. SHISD encourages more people to attend the meeting and provide community feedback.