Dallas Voters Approve $1.6 Billion School Bond Package
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DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - Voters Tuesday approved a Dallas Independent School District $1.6 billion bond to build new schools and improve existing ones.
Megan Airitam, a mother with two girls at Lakewood Elementary, is a vocal supporter of the plan. She says her daughters' school has suffered from overcrowding.
"You really don't appreciate the impact of overcrowding until you see it," she said. "You've got cafeterias that can't serve the kids in a timely manner. My kids, for example, I pack their lunch, because someone's got to be last in line to get through the lunch line, and if you're last line I don't know that you would actually have time to eat."
DISD plans to build nine new schools, expand 19 existing ones, and improve facilities throughout the district.
District officials have pledged to do it all without raising the current tax rate.
"Do we need bonds? Yes to prepare these schools, but not this particular bond," said the Rev. Ronald Wright, who has organized opposition to the proposal.
Wright wants to save older schools from being closed and says the fight isn't over. "What are we shutting down schools for, and building schools, when all we have to do is remodel and repair the schools that are already existing?"
Airitam, on the other hand, thinks Dallas ISD is headed in the right direction.
She said, "If we don't provide this funding for them to continue down that path, then you know we're just kind of handicapping them."
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