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What Austin ISD's billion-dollar bond means for you

The fate of Austin ISD's billion dollar bond proposal will be in voters' hands on Nov. 7.

From news conferences to school board meetings, Travis County voters have been swamped with information about the Austin Independent School District's $1 billion dollar bond.

It's no secret that this will change Austin whether it passes or fails.

For two years they've been working on a bond recommendation that will serve as what they call a "facilities master plan."

District officials used a system that looks at the schools that are in the worst conditions first: that is where the bond money will go.

A billion dollars is designed to modernize or construct 16 new campus facilities, some of which will be replacement schools; Eastside Memorial will be one of those schools the district will move to a location on Thompson Street.

"If this bond does not pass, our district will be in a world of hurt. We'll be using more dollars to address facility needs, which means 38 percent of those dollars would be going to the state, so this is a more efficient way of us being able to address the aging schools," AISD Trustee Jayme Mathias said.

But members of "Save East Austin Schools" see things differently.

The group is made up of parents and school volunteers that feel the bond doesn't support every school, which they feel it should.

Several Under-enrolled schools could close to bring down bond costs. That plan is a concern for the group, especially since the district says the tax rate will not increase if the bond passes.

RELATED| Austin residents speak in opposition to $1B AISD bond

Bertha Delgado, one of the co-founders of Save East Austin Schools, questions where AISD will get the money for the billion dollar bond.

"That's a lie because you're asking to borrow over a billion dollars. Where is that money going to come from? Homeowners, property owners that own land here will have to pay that eventually someway, somehow," Delgado said.

The district says bond dollars will stay in Austin.

Both sides will pass out information on the bond up until the election on Nov. 7.

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