Marble Falls ISD voters approve all bond props
Marble Falls Independent School District voters said yes to all four bond propositions of the May 3 election.
Dr. Jeff Gasaway, Marble Falls ISD superintendent, said the results send a clear message to him and other school district leaders and officials.
“When you have the community support you in the way that they did tonight, it lets you know that they trust what you’re doing,” he said.
Eight of nine precincts reported that
• Prop A, which was General Facilities Planning, had 1,852 yes votes to 600 no votes or 75.53 percent saying yes.
• Prop B, which was for Technology, had 1,846 yes votes to 604 no votes or 75.35 percent saying yes.
• Prop C, which was for athletic facilities, had 1,636 yes votes to 807 no votes or 66.97 percent saying yes.
• Prop D, which was the multipurpose facility, had 1,662 yes votes. to 781 no votes or 68.03 percent saying yes.
The superintendent anticipated a very busy start to the week.
“We’re going to be starting on Monday (May 5) to really map out what are those projects,” he said. “What I can tell you is the first 2 projects that we’re really going to take on – one is from Prop A, and that’s Highland Lakes Drive, to try to get some space built on Highland Lakes Elementary School. But the second project that we’re going to have to really hit the ground running on is going to be the new baseball facility. The reason for the new baseball field being a priority is we really need to be able to have that project come to an end or at a stage where we can have varsity baseball games before we can tear down the whole field.
“And so, as you can imagine, if that project were not to finish until May of 2026, we would need to keep the existing baseball field running for the kids to make sure that we have enough field for our varsity baseball team to play on,” he added. “And so we will not be able to do anything with the multipurpose facility until we really have a good feeling on how quickly we’re going to be able to get the new baseball facility.”
Mapping out the projects will include calculated dates on how long each will take to finish and when each one can start. Gasaway said it’s possible for different extracurricular projects to be built at Marble Falls High School at the same time. Because the location of the multipurpose facility will be built on the existing Scearce Baseball Field, which in essence is the only park that meets the guidelines of the University Interscholastic League, construction can’t begin on it until the baseball program has its home ready for use. Gasaway believes the multipurpose facility has a chance to be ready for use by May 2027.
“It will impact that, as you can imagine, just with how intertwined the different propositions are to have certain projects finished before we can start the next project,” he said. “We’re trying to just work on the staging of what are we going to do, and we’ll work with our architects on that, on trying to stage when do we start a project, when do we finish a project, and if we’re displacing kids, where do we move kids to try to make sure we minimize the disruption as much and as little as possible.”
As for the other extracurricular activities facilities, Gasaway believes it’s possible to work on several at one time. Those other projects include the auxiliary or PE gym becoming the new band hall, turning the existing band hall into a studio for cheer and the Starlettes dance team, and the boys and girls locker room additions on Max Copeland Gym. Other projects, such as the artificial turf at Mustang Stadium, can take longer because the current turf is below the GMAX rating. GMAX measures the force transmitted back to an athlete after impact with the field.
“They can definitely do two things at one time,” the superintendent said. “We’re fortunate that we (will) have three gyms when the multipurpose facility is finished. But we may start work on that new band hall even earlier to try to have that moving while other projects are going on. And so we definitely have the ability to have more than one project going at one time, and we’ll have Mackie Price, our bond director, really be spearheading all the work that’s going to be going on and getting those staged accordingly.”
He pointed out that projects that cost $25,000 or more must be taken to the Marble Falls Independent School District Board of Trustees.
“We’ll all try to be as transparent as possible to ensure that our community is well aware of what we’re doing and working on (and) just continuing to build the trust,” he said. “And one of the ways that we can honor that trust is just continuing to do things like communicate timelines and progress with the committee as well as we will have a bond review committee helping us as we do different projects to look at those projects and timelines.”
