‘Not one shovel of ground to be broken’; district, city at standstill over bond projects

By Brendan Marchand | on August 03, 2023

*This story has been updated.

After voters approved a $58.5 million bond for Paradise ISD last November, the district says that they are still facing roadblocks from the City of Paradise to implement the projects.

In an Aug. 2 letter addressed to “the community of Paradise,” PISD School Board members and Superintendent Will Brewer outlined a series of public improvements that the city is requiring of the district before construction is to begin. The letter states that because of the scope of the improvements, the district may face potential delays in their bond project timeline.

The PISD letter claims that the city has distinguished the school bond as an “opportunity” for city infrastructure improvements, and the scope of the city’s requirements has widened to the point of impacting bond projects being completed.

“The scope of the city’s desires has increased with each piece of communication to the point where the city has communicated the desire for the district to commit to city infrastructure improvements beyond what the district believes is reasonable for the current bond projects,” the letter said. “It has become clear that the city leadership views the bond as an ‘opportunity’ to fund a significant portion of the city’s future master water plans and future master thoroughfare plans … There is no doubt that the ‘opportunity’ for the city to require these future planned measures that are above and beyond what is needed for the current bond projects will impact building projects for our students.”

PISD leadership continued by saying that the city’s requirements of the district have been unclear and inconsistent, noting that the fees, processes and scope of the required city projects have “continually evolved over the past five months.” The letter states that not only does the city want the district to use school funds and resources to address “inadequate engineering plans,” city leadership is requiring the district to retroactively apply current city requirements to past district projects that were not required at the time of those projects’ approval.

“… City leadership recently responded to the district’s architect and engineer team with the following: ‘And to reiterate the city’s position, there will be no construction until the public improvements have been completed and accepted by the city. Not one shovel of ground to be broken,’” the letter said.

District officials said that from their understanding, it is unusual for a city to demand this many improvements be made outside of the designated bond projects before they are able to break ground.

The letter continued by saying PISD, on multiple occasions, has requested a joint meeting with the Paradise City Council to discuss possible solutions and find a way to move forward with the bond projects. According to the school district, city officials have declined the joint meeting each time.

“It is disappointing that city leadership has shown no interest in a conversation between the city council and the school board to discuss the city’s demands regarding the Paradise ISD November 2022 bond funding a potential multimillion dollar City of Paradise infrastructure project,” the letter stated.

In an email sent to the Messenger Thursday evening, Paradise Mayor Amanda Black responded with an official statement from the city:

“This statement is in response to the open letter to the community published by the Paradise ISD school board. The City disagrees with their interpretation of the events over the last several months and those that extend back to early bond committee meetings. We are obligated to hold the school district to requirements set by law in order to provide for managed growth and for the health, safety, and welfare for the residents of the City of Paradise. It appears that a lack of planning on the part of the school district is being directed in such a way as to make the City the scapegoat. It is unfortunate that this is the way the school district has chosen to proceed instead of continuing to brainstorm solutions with the professional teams on both sides. Regardless, the details for a joint open meeting to address this issue is in the works, and the City looks forward to discussing it further with the school district at that time.”

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