Fort Bend ISD in Texas Approves Construction of New $29 Million Aquatics Facility
Yesterday at 06:20 PM
By Braden Keith on SwimSwam
Fort Bend ISD in suburban Houston is moving forward with its plan to build a new practice facility for local swimming & diving teams. This comes after a $1.26 million bond package in May 2023 will come up $163.2 million short of the promised projects.
In October, trustees voted to eliminate construction of a new elementary school, delay construction of a new transportation facility, and adjust fine arts and athletics projects to reduce that overage by $95.9 million, according to local media Community Impact.
Because of the way the bonds were written, the money for the swimming pool project cannot be diverted to other parts of the bond package, but with the pool project already projecting to be $6 million over budget, the district was left with a few choices.
One was to replicate the district’s existing practice facility, which is a 50-meter “stretch” indoor pool with three diving boards, allowing multiple teams to practice simultaneously with diving. Ultimately, that was the plan approved – though administrators discussed making it an open air facility to reduce costs and building it into a large competition-ready natatorium with spectator seating. The latter project would have cost $17 million more than budgeted.
An internal investigation by the district found that FBISD administrators didn’t intentionally mislead voters about the scope of the facility, but that they “did not adequately communicate to the board or the public that the project would be a replica of the district’s existing aquatics practice facility.”
That investigation found that the primary cause of the overrun is administrators not adjusting for inflation when the bond package was pushed from 2022 until 2023.
The $6 million cost overrun will have to be pulled from $33.08 million in contingency funds from the 2014 and 2018 bond packages.
The project timeline would have construction begin in February 2026 and have the facility open in June 2027. The facility has no mechanical forced air and instead relies on walls lined with garage doors to provide relief from the sweltering Bayou summers.
Fort Bend ISD currently has 12 high schools among 83 total schools serving over 80,000 students. The district is currently served by an existing practice facility and the Don Cook Natatorium, which in 1998 was opened as the first indoor 50-meter pool in the Houston area.
11 of the district’s 13 high schools have UIL swimming programs. Most compete in the state’s biggest classification, 6A, though two compete in Class 5A.
Read the full story on SwimSwam: Fort Bend ISD in Texas Approves Construction of New $29 Million Aquatics Facility
