Posted 12/09/2003 10:30:00 PM by Douglas

Won't someone please think of the children?!? Clear Creek ISD is after some more of my money, and they're only slightly more convincing this time around. Ok, so they've trimmed $73 Million off the package they offered up this spring that included a $20 Million high school football stadium, but still, I don't think they offer up a persuasive case:

At Clear Creek High School, a 47-year-old campus, the roof of the auditorium is covered with water stains. There’s also no access for handicapped people to an upstairs room where costumes and props are stored, and the district is currently renting a dimmer rack for $1,500 a month because the components of the almost 50-year-old lighting unit died.

“They (students) need to continue productions,” said Fred Niccum, director of public facilities and planning.

I know I'm a dinosaur, but I came from a public school in Texas that was about 60 years old, and we didn't even have A/C. But that's missing the big picture: isn't public education supposed to be about, oh, I don't know education instead of entertainment? I know CCISD needs new schools to mollycoddle the influx of children in the district, but they're just not tugging at my heart strings by appealing to their lack of equipment for extracurricular activities. Especially when you consider we're already paying the maximum amount in school taxes the State of Texas allowes by law.

I can understand money for new schools, but look at some of this other stuff they're asking for:

• Seabrook Intermediate (new band hall)
• Clear Lake Intermediate (new band hall and new choir room)
• Clear Lake High School (new band hall and new field house)
• Clear Creek High School (new band hall and new dance, scene and theater studio)
• Clear Brook High School (new dance studio and new gymnasium)
• New agricultural facility (to serve Clear Brook and Clear Lake high schools)
• Gymnasiums at elementary schools (Armand Bayou, Clear Lake City, Greene, Hall, Landolt, Ross, Whitcomb and White)
• Scoreboards
• Bleachers
• New tennis courts at intermediate schools (12)
• Upgrade athletic facilities (26)
• Outdoor athletic storage buildings (12)

Pardon me if I don't bust out crying. Do the residents of CCISD have a vested interest in seeing that the children of the community receive a perfunctory education? Yes. Do they need $264 Million for lighting equipment in the theater arts department and new band halls and tennis courts? I'm afraid not.

But I'm in the minority on this one. I'll vote yes for this one when they trim it down to an even $150 Million for new schools and land. Either that, or give each voter a line-item veto.