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Citizens Bond Oversight Committee urges use of 2019 bond savings for turf, safety and athletics upgrades
Summary
The Citizens Bond Oversight Committee reported on 2019 bond progress and recommended using leftover bond savings and interest to fund prioritized projects — turf and field work, LED lighting, scoreboards, storm-shelter gyms and site accessibility—after touring completed projects and reviewing remaining design and bidding work.
The Arlington ISD Citizens Bond Oversight Committee presented its 2025–26 annual report to the board and urged the district to use savings and interest from the 2019 bond to complete a prioritized list of remaining projects.
The committee, chaired by Dr. Katherine Parra and co‑chaired by Adam Baker, said most 2019 projects have been completed or are in closeout but some large or district‑wide items remain in design and bidding phases. “Seeing the projects firsthand — a classroom, a fine‑arts facility, an athletic space — really brings the budget numbers to life,” Baker said during the presentation.
The CBOC ranked potential uses for excess funds and interest, with synthetic turf replacement for multi‑activity centers and high‑school fields at the top, followed by LED lighting, track resurfacing, scoreboard and sound upgrades, and storm‑shelter gyms for specialty campuses such as Arlington Collegiate. Committee members noted several items, including scoreboard and elementary sound upgrades, could be covered by interest earnings and project savings, while larger items such as gym/storm shelters would require greater funding decisions.
Kelly Horn, the district’s CBOC liaison, told trustees the committee added campus tours this year to validate how bond dollars translated to finished spaces. Dr. Parra said the committee’s charge is oversight and recommendation, not execution, and emphasized transparency and community engagement in the process.
Trustees discussed the narrow failure of Proposition C in the recent bond election and whether to pursue another proposition or use existing savings to address the athletic and site‑work projects that had been on that proposition. Board members also flagged demographic shifts and upcoming facility‑master planning as context for decisions about consolidations or new capital spending.
The committee offered a ranked “shopping list” of projects it would recommend if the board elects to spend excess bond proceeds; it emphasized priorities that would increase safety and equity across campuses. The board signaled it would consider the recommendations as part of a broader facilities and finance discussion scheduled for upcoming meetings.
