Construction projects ongoing at Brandon High School took center stage at a press conference this month that addressed the approximately $101.8 million in repairs underway at more than 100 schools this summer.
That includes $84.9 million in air-conditioning repairs and replacements at 14 schools, including Brandon and East Bay high schools; Burns, Jennings and Shields middle schools; and FishHawk Creek, Nelson, Sessums, Bryan, Heritage, Mendenhall, Roosevelt, Seminole and Shaw elementary schools.
The remaining $16.9 million is earmarked for maintenance projects and repairs that involve such things as playgrounds, track repairs, kitchen and cafeteria improvements, painting, window replacements and elevator modernizations.
“Thank goodness in 2018 our taxpayers had faith in us to give us that half-penny sales tax,” said Chris Farkas, deputy superintendent of operations. “We’re on 100 campuses this summer working our tails off. The kids are coming back to school on August 12, so we need to make sure that we’re ready for the teachers on August 2.”
The work is part of a much broader undertaking, funded by the half-penny sales tax referendum approved by voters in November 2018 for a 10-year period. To date, 754 projects have been completed and 214 are in progress, with nearly $295 million awarded to local businesses, according to school officials. They further noted that, as of April 14, the school district had invested $742.4 million of the $834.6 million received in referendum funds.
Addressing reporters and answering questions at the June 5 press conference were Farkas; Jeremy Klein, Brandon High School principal; and Jose Valiente, certified public accountant and a member of the Citizen Oversight Committee that meets monthly to oversee the spending and completion of school improvement projects. Attendees toured the work being done at Brandon High with construction partners associated with JE Dunn Construction.
“Today, you’re seeing our summer HVAC air-conditioning project at Brandon High, which is one of our largest, accounting for more than $12 million worth of work,” Farkas said. “This is symbolic of the work that’s being done all around our district thanks to the half-penny sales tax.”
Enhancements overall have been heralded as necessary to provide students and staff with improved learning environments now and into the future. The referendum approved in 2018 reportedly raises $121-$131 million per year.
“This half a penny is very powerful,” Valiente said. “The role of the oversight committee is to make sure we follow the money. And one thing that we wanted from the very beginning is to create a separate bank account for all this money, so we can [account for] the first dollar that came in to the last dollar that’s been spent.”
On the ground at Brandon High, Klein said the ongoing HVAC work is huge. “The fact that we’ll have a constant, comfortable temperature going on is just going to make things more conducive to learning,” he said. He noted as well the “newness” attraction, which, mixed with the traditions an older building evokes, creates a much-needed draw for the most essential undertaking of schooling.
“When that newness happens, kids start coming to school more,” Klein said. “The more that the kids are here, the better we can teach them. The more we can teach them, the more kids walk the stage [at graduation].”
As for how well it’s been working, Klein said he had no further to look than his first graduating class, which entered Brandon High as freshman the same year he started his first job as principal. As of June 5, Klein said Brandon High was on track to increase by four points its 88 percent graduation rate last year, bringing this year’s graduation rate to “92-plus percent.”
