Cy Fair ISD’s big, new, expensive Berry Education Support Center got a boatload of press yesterday (did someone send out a press release?), and at a cost of $73 million (oh my!) it does seem to warrant a bit of scrutiny. Here’s an excerpt from KTRK-13’s coverage:
Every time Alan Rankin drives by the new center, he cringes a little.
“It’s not an educational facility. It’s a sports center,” he said. “It’s a teacher conference center. They’re renting it out to private for-gain venues.”
[snip]
“We’ve grown to 91,000 students,” said Kelly Durham with the Cy-Fair Independent School District. “We’re the third largest school district in the state of Texas. About 10 years ago, we were about half that size.”
Supporters say they built this facility because voters approved a bond referendum back in 2001. But opponents say the voters didn’t know exactly what they were asked to pay for.
“What we’re trying to do is promote some sort of accountability and fiscal responsibility that tax dollars need to go toward education,” said Rankin.
The school district says the facility provides a venue for performances, student outreach, and teacher education that cannot be measured by its $72 million price tag.
The Berry Center is priceless! Its value is immeasurable! And as a bonus, it’s for the children.
KTRH-740 recently noted the center’s electric bills:
KTRH News has learned the center’s electricity bill for its first two months of operation was over $80,000.
Roy Sprague, Cy-Fair’s assistant superintendent for facilities planning and construction, says the $72.9 million facility had electricity bill of about $48,000 in June, but that the costs did drop to about $35,000 in August. The first month saw a higher cost because all the systems were being checked out, Sprague said. “In subsequent months, we’re not running the systems as much.”
Officials are working to defray costs.
Harris County Commissioner Steve Radack is one of the critics (also via KTRH):
He says there’s a big difference between money for construction and cash for ongoing operations.
“I think the residents of the Cy-Fair School District are starting to see the real costs of the Taj Mahal (Berry Center),” he told KTRH Thursday afternoon. “It’s going to cost a whole lot of money to build it, and it’s going to cost a lot of money to operate it,” Radack said.
Supporters say voters approved it, and opponents say the voters were misled. Can someone dig up the original ballot language from 2001 so we can see how the center was described and what the price tag was on it? Maybe there’s a lesson in here about ballot language. As we all know, ballot language can be important.
