Voters approve Northside ISD's $648.3 million bond package

SAN ANTONIO — Voters in Northside Independent School District approved a $648.3 million bond package Saturday that backers had touted as the first ever to allocate the majority of its funding to upgrades of existing campuses.

With the final tally showing 65 percent of ballots cast in support of the bond, district leaders declared victory around 8:20 p.m. with a string of speeches.

“Our students are the real winners,” Melva Matkin, who was one of three co-chairs of the citizens' bond committee, told supporters who turned out to watch the results in the bond campaign headquarters in a strip mall on Huebner Road.

The 2014 bond funding will build six new schools but 55 percent of it will go to upgrading and renovating older campuses and facilities.

The city's largest school district adds 2,000 to 3,000 students annually. Most of the new schools, including a new high school, will be located in fast-growing neighborhoods in the southwestern part of the district.

Superintendent Brian Woods, who is experiencing his first bond campaign as the district's chief after taking the job in 2012, expressed gratitude in his speech to the community, noting that Northside officials conducted about 370 community meetings in recent months to educate their voters on the package.

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