Where, Oh, Where?

Disclaimer:  everything contained in this blog is MY OPINION. Every attempt is made to present the truth through actual facts or to identify statements which are in doubt;  otherwise there will be no deliberate presentation of gossip, rumor, or innuendo which can't be proven as factual.

Now that the school bond has been pushed through apparently without considering all the problems surrounding it, it seems there's the question of where to put the new school.
First of all, certain people were assured that annexation of part of the city park was a "done deal" according to a city authority.
People of the town, to whom the park belongs, weren't informed in advance of the proposed annexation, nor were they asked if this was ok.  It's not.
Next, a member of the city commission  says the new school should be out on the highway. The 'reason' for this? Everyone else is doing it.
Copycatting is not a good reason for anything.
I travel a lot and I've seen the mess caused by schools out on a highway. They slow down  traffic, and the highway was built, presumably, to avoid just that.  The kids, who think they're nine feet tall and bulletproof, peel out of the parking lots without a thought except to get where they want to go.
Putting a school out on a highway is dangerous and impractical.
Then there's the idea of tearing down First Ward and putting the new school there.
Not such a bad idea, since a school has already been there, but what about the traffic and the noise for residents? When First Ward was built, parents didn't bring kids to school, nor did the kids drive themselves. Now they do.
If I owned a house bordering that block, I would have a walleyed fit if the EISD proposed to build an active school there.
There's also the notion that the new school could be built next to the junior high school.
Does anyone remember the problems created when over the citizens' protests, the school built a softball field there?
Many of those problems still exist:  minor vandalism of yards and houses by kids who are bored with the game; damage to cars and houses by softballs, trash left in yards and gutters by people who attend the games; the slowdown of traffic on the highway, and the ever-present danger of kids and a lot of cars.
But, the primary problem is that the streets between the school grounds and private homes aren't wide enough.
People parking cars to watch the games park them on both sides of the street, virtually blocking it. Emergency vehicles such as firetrucks, ambulances, and law enforcement vehicles are hard put to get to anyone living in a house bordering the school grounds.
Finally, there's the area around the high school.  Presumably the new school would be built before the additional bond for a sports complex is floated, which means the football stadium area can't be used for the site.  If the city park can't be acquired (and it is to be hoped that it can't), then that leaves the houses on the north side of the street, and the houses and vocational building and greenhouse on the west.  No doubt the school would carelessly write off the vocational building and greenhouse, but it seems the people in the houses don't want to sell.
Were any of these problems even considered in the mad rush to ram the school bond through before the townspeople were aware that there might be a lot of complications which hadn't been taken into account?

Anita Huguelet McMurtrie