Floresville ISD task force urges single, districtwide safety-and-maintenance priority and new intermediate school

The Floresville ISD facilities task force presented a prioritized list of campus projects and urged the board to make safety, security, technology and maintenance a single districtwide top priority.

"Therefore, the committee suggests taking the projects identified in the SFP related to safety, security, technology, and maintenance for all campuses and combining those into a single top priority project," task-force member Andrew Brooks told the board. The combined scope described by the committee includes guard stations, perimeter fencing upgrades, a new enclosed vestibule at Floresville Middle School, security camera system upgrades, modernized fire alarms, PA/bell system improvements, and critical HVAC and roofing work.

Marissa Terry, the task-force member who led the presentation of the group’s No. 2 priority, said the committee recommended construction of a 120,000-square-foot intermediate school to relieve overcrowding. Terry cited campus utilization rates presented in the district plan — South Elementary at about 99% optimal capacity, North Elementary at 87% and the middle school at 93% — and said adding capacity by retrofitting existing campuses would be far more expensive. The task-force reviewed district estimates from the master facility plan that described retrofit costs of roughly $5,000,000 at North, $5,700,000 at South and $4,710,000 at the middle school — a combined $15,410,000 — if an intermediate school is not built.

Task-force members said the phased intermediate-school design (phase 1: core spaces, cafeteria and kitchen; later conversion to a middle school) avoids the immediate cost of a full-size competition gym while addressing current overcrowding. The task force also listed additional priorities: a 5,000-square-foot middle-school weight-room and CTE classroom addition, a 25,000-square-foot high-school CTE shop replacement, athletics maintenance (tennis courts, stadium lighting and sound, bleacher work) and a 2,500-square-foot restroom/concession building at the baseball/softball complex.

Board members thanked the volunteers and administrators for the work and scheduled a board workshop for Jan. 14 to review options and financing. No formal funding decision was taken; the task force acknowledged that financing these projects will be a significant community decision.