Brownsboro Independent School District Athletic Director John Settle talks about proposed inprovements at Bear Stadium, including a new scoreboard and synthetic turf. Loyd Cook Photo Trustees are expected to authorize spending more than $1.5 million on upgrades at Brownsboro High School’s football stadium, Superintendent Elton Caldwell said.

“We’re talking about funding this from the fund balance or a combination of the fund balance and the maintenance (budget). These are things that are needed, and I think we have enough to pay for them.”

Over half the cost — about $795,000 — will be spent on installing artificial turf. An additional 1,360 seats on the home side of the stadium, tennis courts, remodeled dressing rooms, a new concession stand with restrooms, and a new scoreboard will account for the remainder of the cost, according to estimates.

“Two different contractors will be involved,” Caldwell said. “The turf will be handled by one contractor, and everything else will be done by another.”

The additional stadium seats will be added in front of each 10-yard line. New tennis courts will be built between Brownsboro Intermediate School and the baseball fields, and a concession stand and restrooms will be built on the west side of the stadium, on the north end of the practice tennis court.

A sidewalk will also be buillt between the new concession stand and the stadium.

“The stadium seating, hopefully, will allow us to get everyone in the stadium and seated in big (football) games,” Caldwell said. “That will help us with crowd control. And we didn’t have enough restrooms to serve everybody. We’ve not had any additions to these areas in about 20 years.”

Much of the work should be completed by the June 4 graduation ceremony, which has been moved from Tyler Junior College to Bear Stadium this year. Caldwell said it is unlikely the turf will have been installed by that time.

“This is all for the kids and their activities. Every team sport except basketball works outside. I think the community will be proud of it.”

Dressing rooms for male and female athletes are small and often shared, restrooms and showers are inadequate, the stadium is outdated and poses publicsafety concerns, a makeshift structure serves as the fieldhouse, and parking for football games is nearly nonexistent.

At the stadium, during football games, students and fans regularly watch from outside seating areas on grass, in parking lots, and near State Highway 31 behind the north end of the football field.

Cars are parked in front of businesses, around Brownsboro Elementary School and Brownsboro Junior High School, and in residential areas nearby.

Caldwell said trustees want to finance improvements at and around the stadium separately from tax revenue garnered from a November bond proposal.

“That will free up bond monies for classroom construction,” he said.

Theoretical construction costs and other financial scenarios related to the Brownsboro Independent School District’s expansion efforts were released on March 22 by Texas School Planning President Dr. Arnold Oates during a committee meeting at Chandler Intermediate School.

The exhaustive report shows five options for building, expanding, and renovating the district’s six campuses.

Among them includes constructing a 212,000-square-foot high school that would include a fine-arts auditorium and athletic support facilities “with a core for 1,200 students and academic areas for 1,000 students.”

Leon Johnson of Southwest Securities Group of Dallas distributed a 10- page report outlining three bond-impact assumptions. It’s estimated that a 30-year bond at $20 million would increase property taxes on a $100,000 house from $969 to $1,141.25.

Comparatively, a 25- year bond at $20 million would increase property taxes on a $100,000 house from $969 to $1,157.52. At $25 million, property taxes on a $100,000 house would increase from $969 to $1,203.22.

A 35-year bond at $20 million would increase property taxes on a $100,000 house from $969 to $1,130.18.

The estimated cost for the five scenarios is between $40.5 million and $57.4 million. The fifth scenario has a projected cost of $54.7 million.