Comal Independent School District board of trustees officially approved a $397.7 million bond package to be presented to voters on May 2.  The bond includes four proposition sections due to a change in the state education code, and early voting takes place April 20 to 28.

“(The bond) is going to address some of the behind the scenes things, like air conditioning and Wi-Fi,” principal Michael Wahl said.  “These things will help our building improve.”

One of the main changes on the bond is the construction of a new wrestling facility and boys’ and girls’ soccer and wrestling locker rooms. The location of these buildings could be behind the student section of the football stadium. 

“Currently a lot of sports share a locker room,” Wahl said.  “So they would get their own designated locker room for wrestling and soccer, girls and boys, and wrestling would get to move out of the maintenance shed that they are in right now.”

Along with infrastructure projects, the bond contains an educational technology portion. The district currently provides 10 Macbooks per classroom and one Macbook and one iPad per teacher. For the price that it takes to buy one Macbook, three Google Chromebook laptops could be purchased. This means that in theory, classrooms could now have enough laptops for most, if not every, student. 

“Teachers would keep their Macbook and iPad until (the devices) die, and then transition solely onto the Chromebook,” Wahl said.  “The Chromebook is like an iPad and laptop in one, so teachers no longer need a separate iPad.”

Section B and C of the bond is for building a multiple purpose event center and pavilion on the land across from Danville Middle School. The center can hold up 10,000 people but still be as intimate as 1,000. It has the potential to be used for Future Farmers of America events, dance competitions and graduation. 

“We could host any type of concert that we wanted there,” Wahl said.  “We could do FFA chapter shows, and we also could hold prom and homecoming there.”

Now that bonds have to be presented to voters in separate packages, there will be a section A,B,C and D, meaning some proposition sections can pass while others do not. Section A is for the new schools, campus safety, campus infrastructure projects, and buses and land, while B contains the multi-purpose event center. Proposition C is for campus reinvestment projects and the multi-use event center pavilion, and Proposition D contains instructional technology. 

“The bond impacts our campus in each of the four propositions,” Wahl said, “mainly in the technology section, by providing additional technology for students.”