ABOVE: The yellow area marked on this ariel photo of the campus indicated the adjoining property that NISD purchased two years ago in anticipation of campus improvements and building projects, including a new academic building, up for approval in this year’s 2018 bond vote.
The 2018 NISD School Bond is open for the last day of early voting today, and up for regular vote this Saturday, May 5. If passed it promises many improvements to NISD campuses including over 48 million dollars designated for a new academic building and upgrades to athletic fields and classrooms, paving and drainage repairs, roof repairs and waterproofing, and safety and security upgrades for this campus alone.
According to NISD Assistant Superintendent for Facilities, Leroy SanMiguel, plans for the major improvements to this campus began with the current demolition and rebuilding of the fine arts building starting two years ago, and included a purchase of a piece of land connected to the current school property for future improvements.
“Holmes high school used to have 32 acres of property and newer schools like Harlan have upward to 70 acres which is a sizable difference,” SanMiguel said. “So we purchased this property two years ago with the idea of expanding the campus and in order to give it more breathing room because it’s really tight.”
According to San Miguel, the purchased property starts from the back of the existing baseball and softball fields and stretches along the parking lot of Regal Cinemas Cielo Vista towards Cinema Ridge. The district plans to relocate the current baseball, softball, and multipurpose fields onto the new space and to replace them with a new academic building and additional parking.
“We have a lot of traveling teachers and in order to alleviate this, we have a masterplan for a new academic building which is planned to be put where the tennis courts are,” SanMiguel said. “And one of the largest concerns of this particular campus is the limited parking we have. If the multipurpose field is no longer at its current location, we may expand parking there.”
Many students and staff can agree that the limited parking on campus is major concern. Senior Elijah Cano is one of those students.
“Once teachers start parking on campus again it will be even more impossible to find a spot especially for seniors who get to school late or do not have a first period,” Cano said.
With additional parking and a new academics building, the campus will have more room for growth and it will help evenly disperse the students so that classrooms are less crowded. The added space would also provide more classes to ensure rooms for teachers so that they don’t have to travel from room to room. Not only are there plans for an entirely new building, but there are also ideas for improvements to existing structures in the future to account for the increasing standards and school growth.
“Some of these buildings are getting up in age, so it’s time to start thinking about either completely renovating them or taking them down,” SanMiguel said. “So one of the ideas [for the future] that has not been finalized is to start removing or renovating some of the buildings in the back to provide more breathing room.”
According to English teacher Katherine Hodgdon who teaches in the D building, a new academic building would mean rooms that accommodate more interactive teaching styles than what can be done in the older, circular D, B, and F buildings with their smaller, pie-shaped rooms.
According to SanMiguel, there will be other improvements on campus should the bond pass, including roofing repairs, drainage, security, paving, and infrastructure. Also, the feeder elementary and middle schools for this campus would receive similar improvements as well as new security checkpoints and sun shades for the playgrounds.
For information on voting on the 2018 bond please visit https://nisd.net/bond/2018/voting. Early voting ends today and the last chance to vote at regular polling locations is this Saturday, May 5.