The Fort Bend ISD Board of Trustees has given the go-ahead to purchase land for a school in Telfair, but trustees made it clear that it is unknown when a school will be built, or even if it will be a high school.
“We are looking at purchasing land which is different than building a high school,” said newly appointed Board President Sue Hohnbaum at Monday night’s board meeting.
In June of 2009, Newland offered to sell the land to the district for $1.25 per square foot. At that time, district officials indicated that the price was higher than anticipated. Newland lowered the price to the current offer of $1 per square foot.
The total price for the 65 acres at the intersection of University Boulevard and Chatham Avenue is $2,831,400 before survey. The money is from the district’s 2007 bond referendum.
The contract for sale includes a 60-day feasibility period during which the district can perform due diligence on the tract of land.
“We have traveled a long road with this land purchase,” said Position 2 Trustee Sonal Bhuchar, who was still serving as president of the board during the land discussion. “Because we know that we need to pass another bond should we even decide to build another high school, and we at this point realize we have severely overcrowded high schools in that area. So, if indeed that falls into our next plan for five years or 10 years, and we look at another bond, that would be when it would become feasible to consider building another school.”
The issue has been a controversial one in the Telfair community, with many residents saying when they purchased their home they were told a high school would be built in the neighborhood.
Near the end of last year Senior Vice President and Division Manager for Newland Communities Alan Bauer said he was getting “tons” of negative feedback from Telfair residents who heard that the high school indicated on the community’s site plan may not happen. Bauer said then he just wanted the Fort Bend Independent School district to let Newland know if they want the land or not.
Bauer said that Newland was required to set aside land for a high school as part of the purchasing agreement for the property. The two elementary sites, one now Cornerstone Elementary, were added by Newland.
This is one of the good decisions FBISD has ever taken.This is very positive and hoping they would make necessary steps to realize the dreams of telfair residents soon. This is very important for the people living there and their kids and their future.
Of course it’s a dream for Telfair resident: they get their own community high school built with (mostly) everyone else’s tax money!
I agree that city should plan the city better (e.g woodlands).
But if we had less residents taxes will be even higher.
Why are we wasting money on a land deal that we have no use for at this time? During an economic crunch when hundreds of teachers have been laid off. There is no strategic plans to develop the land in the future. This is another example of the board being bullied into making decisions or making ridiculous wasteful decisions.
You decide….
I do not see this as wasted money, if the board did not buy this land now, the builder was planning to rezone the land to commercial use. The board is planning for future growth in fortbend county based on the information they quoted in this news release.
“we at this point realize we have severely overcrowded high schools in that area”
The county can only attract more residents if they continue to provide equal/good schools compared to other counties. The operating budget issues (managed by the state of texas) are separate from capital budget issues (managed by the FBISD bonds). Good schools are one of the biggest reasons why the fort bend county has grown so much. Growth in county has resulted in better living conditions for all of us.
Maybe, just maybe, we have enough residents coming here anyway for the time being. The census bears that out. Do we NEED more subdivisions where homes are so close when you sneeze in one house they bless you in the other? Do we NEED more homes with 11 people and five cars with a garage so full of garbage (or used as an extra bedroom) that none of the cars can fit?
It’s easy to spend everyone else’s money sometimes. Nice tax hike for next year too.
So what if that paticular land is rezoned for commercial use? Building a new school on that land could be 10 years off. There is plenty of land in that area of fortbend county that could be purchased should the need arise in 10 years to purchase land for another high school. It is a waste of money because they have not adequately researched that Telfair will be a good location considering population trends in this side of the district. There could be better locations that help save on transportation costs, etc.
Alleviating overcrowding in FBISD high schools starts with proper zoning decisions and rezoning the entire disrict. This would also help with this side of the district. Throwing money at a problem is not always the best solution. Especially when poor planning is done. Like M.S. #14 stuck in a corn field across from a prison that is not needed.
Its all political. They want their own school (cry cry cry)…Just like Pecan Grove wanted their own Middle School and wanted to pull their kids out of Crocket…(cry cry cry) M.S. #14 is going to be running at 30% capacity for how long? Poor planning.
So now the district will be forced to build a school at that location no matter what occurs with the population in 10 years. Couldn’t that money have been spent on improving the condition of some of the older high schools?