Josh Brown and Joe Tremblay of the Huckabee Architectural firm kicked off a presentation for the Prosper ISD School Board on Monday night with a real glimpse at two new structures coming to Prosper – the long-awaited natatorium and the new football stadium.
Both are still in the design stages so a long way from fruition, but “stunning” was the word used by Board members after seeing the presentation. Seating capacity on the visitor’s side of the stadium will be 6,000, the same as the home side. Seating in the natatorium will be 500. Both will be structures in which Prosper residents will take pride. Projected completion date is March 2019.
PISD Superintendent Drew Watkins began the meeting with a construction update on elementary schools number eight and nine. Both will be named later. Number eight is located on the district’s southern border, on the north side of Panther Creek Parkway in Frisco. It is on the east side of the Miramonte development on Alameda Drive.
The dirt work is in the beginning stages. Pogue Construction has moved its construction trailer to the site and a big sign is there announcing “Future Home of Prosper ISD” and below that “Frisco Master-Planned Community.”
Construction for elementary number nine will begin in the next few weeks, reported Watkins. The location is on the north side of Frontier Parkway close to the location of the new football stadium. It is scheduled to open in August 2018.
From construction of new properties, the meeting went into budget presentations from Rusty Craig, Director of Business Services.
“We have had $69.6 million in total expenses for the year and we still have two months left and some expenses to come,” Craig said. “We are on target for all of our expenses except for transportation. We will be next month doing budget transfers and budget amendments and we will be taking care of that next month.”
Mays Davenport asked for an update on land purchases. “This last one was the middle school site on Coit Road,” Craig said. “We purchased it this last month and that was $7 million. And high schools two, three and four.” High School number two is planned for south of U.S. Highway 380 on the west side of Coit Road across from the Prestwyk development in Frisco.
Watkins added that locations of the third and fourth high schools are yet to be determined. “But we have three high school sites and that’s the biggest chunk of change,” he said.
Craig continued with a preliminary report of the 2017-2018 budget. “This month we review this presentation tonight,” he told the Trustees. “Next month in August, we will approve the budget. In September, we will actually approve the tax rate. This budget you see tonight is based on current law and based on enrollment of 9,500.
Details on the financial report may be viewed on line at http://bit.ly/2tdIGLi.
Next the Guaranteed Maximum Price for the new elementary school north of Frontier Parkway was set at $22,828,995. This is set to allow the ISD to budget for the construction and protect against economic fluctuations, Watkins said. “It’s about $700,000 less than the school in Miramonte development in Frisco,” Construction Manager Jim Toney told the Board. It was reported in the June Board meeting that the difference is caused because Frisco requires a storm shelter be built with the school. It’s a new policy requirement for schools built in the City of Frisco.
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In other business, the Board approved Teague, Nall and Perkins for the design of the sanitary sewer for the new high school site on Coit Road in Frisco before entering into executive session where the agenda states they would discuss:
- An update regarding the annual School Safety Audit along with the Threat and Vulnerability Assessment conducted by the Department of Homeland Security;
- Discuss potential future school sites, the purchasing of land and site-related infrastructure costs;
- Approval of any professional or contract personnel to be employed and status of current professional personnel;
- Approval of resignations received.
Important dates for the coming month are:
August 14 — First day of school for students
August 21 — Budget Hearing and regular monthly school board meeting.
