BROWNSBORO INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT Synthetic turf will be installed at Bear Stadium by graduation and other improvements are expected to be completed by August after Brownsboro Independent School District trustees approved a pair of construction contracts worth about $1.5 million on Monday.

“The bleachers will not be in before graduation, but the turf is supposed to be done by then,” Superintendent Elton Caldwell said. “The concession stand and fieldhouse should be done before school starts, and the tennis courts may be finished after school starts.”

Hellas Construction of Austin has been hired to install the turf. TCMC of Tyler is responsible for the rest of the work, Caldwell said.

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.

Dusty Wise, Becky Grantham, Bobby Teague and Jeffrey Fulgham voted to approve the contracts. Donny Wilson, Joel Irwin, and Ricky Wyatt were absent. Officials will pay for the work from its fund balance or maintenance budget or both, Caldwell has said.

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 built between the new concession stand and the stadium.

Graduation has been moved from Tyler Junior College to Bear Stadium this year.

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rooms for male and female athletes are small and often shared, restrooms and showers are inadequate, the stadium is outdated and poses publicsafety concerns, a makeshift structure serves as the fieldhouse, and parking for football games is nearly nonexistent.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 wanted to finance improvements at and around the stadium separately from tax revenue garnered from a November bond proposal.

Theoretical construction costs and other financial scenarios related to the Brownsboro Independent School District’s expansion efforts were released in March by Texas School Planning President Dr. Ar- nold 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.

An election is being planned for November, when voters will decide whether to raise taxes to finance improvements of some campuses or build others.