Committee forms, launches campaign to support Houston Schools bond issue

A group of citizens has formed a committee to support the $6 million bond issue proposed by Houston Schools.

“Yes For Houston Schools” launched Monday night and created a Facebook page. The group has also produced and handed out flyers. Yard signs are also being made. 

Proposition 2, which would not increase taxes, is the first of two phases planned by the Houston school board. It includes is a 1,500-seat gymnasium that Dr. Allen Moss, superintendent, said would allow the district to host tournaments, address facility needs with practice times, have the space to hold events such as graduation and be attractive for possible postseason volleyball and basketball state playoffs.

The new gym would include locker rooms that accommodate 25 players, official’s office and changing rooms, training room and concessions. In Phase 2, an additional 500 seats would be added to the facility.

Hiett Gymnasium, which was built in 1964, would be renovated to make its main function for extra-curricular events such as choir and band concerts. Acoustic panels would be mounted to the walls and a large portable stage would be constructed. It would also continue to double as a practice facility and possibly be used for additional courts for tournaments. Middle school basketball games would be moved there as well.

Included in the plans are moving the weight room –– currently in the Big Red Building where students are bused throughout the day –– to the lobby of Hiett Gymnasium as well as possibly relocating vocational classes inside the new construction. Preliminary plans show two business classrooms as well as an agriculture classroom.

Moss said the new gymnasium, which would be constructed on the space where the former Fine Arts Building was demolished in 2016, would close about two-thirds of the current gap between Hiett Gymnasium and the middle school gym. Phase 2, which Moss said could be considered in 4-5 years, would completely connect all the facilities on that part of the campus.

The “Yes For Houston Schools” committee includes Jim McNiell, Ryan Munson, Jeff Gettys, Whitney Hall, Travis Root, Jessica Dzurick and Jeff McNiell.