They arrived at their decision after months of diligence, and they want voters to know the Citizens Facilities Advisory Committee’s recommendation to build a new campus in Brownsboro and renovate or expand three other schools was the best scenario available, two of its former members told The Statesman.

“I would say this is the most cost-efficient route,” Chris Frederick said. “Our kids have got to have something better. The people on this committee have a passion for our school district.”

On July 13, the Brownsboro Independent School District Board of Trustees formally accepted the recommendation to build a new Brownsboro Elementary west of town and expand Chandler Elementary School a sixth time.

It includes renovating Brownsboro Elementary School to include more classroom space for Brownsboro Junior High School students. The campuses would be connected by a covered walkway.

At Brownsboro High School, that campus would be renovated to address technology needs and better athletic space. A fieldhouse could also be built.

“We spent four months working on that,” Michele Blackmon said. “We spent weeks looking at problems at these campuses. Costs were addressed, and our needs were prioritized. We toured the campuses and talked to the principals.”

Building the new campus and renovating the others (Proposition 1) is expected to cost $25.5 million. A new fieldhouse (Proposi- tion 2) would cost close to $2 million.

“If we do a new fieldhouse, we can take the old one and make classrooms out of it,” Frederick said. “But if this doesn’t pass, I don’t know what we’re going to do. We’ll be in trouble, and we’ll see more portable buildings.”

Frederick has lived and worked in the district since 1983. Now retired, he coached at Browsboro High School.

“I was here when we built the high school,” he said. “It was set up to have a non-competitive gym, no fieldhouse, and no band hall. We started out with 500 students, including well over 100 athletes.”

Blackmon graduated from Brownsboro High in 1994.

Principal Kenneth Wooten has called the conditions at Brownsboro High “an academic emergency.” With about 900 students, the school is at capacity. Dressing rooms for male and female athletes are small and often shared, and restrooms and showers are inadequate.

As far as technology, the school remains without Wi- Fi, and Wooten has called it “a policy, procedure, and people issue.” Students are assigned computers in one class — an advanced English course. Otherwise, they have no access to current technology.

It will take more than infusion to bring the campus up to more modern standards. In many classrooms, wires that connect to desktop computers hang from the ceiling and, in others, are merely camouflaged with cord covers.

“It comes down to the cosmetics of a room and the safety codes of a room,” Wooten has said. “If you’re able to go wireless, that helps us eliminate space needs and to use current technology.”

Built in 1987, the high school has been expanded once and appears to be in the best condition of the four campuses that need renovation or new buildings.

At Chandler Elementary, when that campus is expanded, it will be over 84,000 square feet, Frederick said. That includes 12 new classrooms.

“The front of the school will become the back,” Blackmon said. “Having it that way will offer more parking.”

Chandler Elementary was built in 1969 and expanded five times between 1977 and 1995. Brownsboro Elementary was built in 1968, and it was expanded four times between 1972 and 1995.

The new campus will be over 70,000 square feet, Blackmon said.

“Brownsboro Elementary is going to service the same kids it does now. Moving the school a mile west of town is not going to change that. It’s more centrally located for the kids in this area.”

Built in 1967, it has been expanded once. Brownsboro Junior High was built in 1981 and has never been expanded.

The Advisory Committee was dismissed on July 13. District officials face a deadline this month to call the election for Nov. 2.