HISD begins push for massive bond proposal

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- The push is on for voters to pass Houston Independent School District's massive bond proposal.

The nearly $2 billion package calls for almost 40 schools to be rebuilt or renovated, and a campaign to get you to say "yes" to the massive package kicked off at Westbury High School this morning.

Citizens for Better Schools is a group that is urging voters to approve HISD's school improvement bond, which will be on the November ballot.

The group says Houston cannot expect to have the best teachers or the best students if it has the worst buildings. Westbury High School is one of the schools that would be partially rebuilt if the bond program passes.

The project would cost $1.89 billion dollars, and would raise homeowners' tax bills by about $100 a year. That money would be used to rebuild 20 HISD high schools, partially replace four of them and renovate four others.

HISD calls the situation "desperate," saying some schools are so old that it's impossible to add the right technology and the space students need in order to learn.

Some buildings are 40 years old. In those schools, trailers have become a permanent reality for students, and that's true at Westbury.

Westbury High Principal Andrew Wainwright tells us the school's 22 "temporary" buildings are not at all temporary. Some are 15 years old.

If it passes in November, the bond issue would also add three new elementary schools and upgrade things like restrooms and athletic facilities throughout the district.

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local, katie mccall

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