Fort Worth crime tax election, Arlington school bonds, Baylor Alumni Association

What crime district meeting?

Early voting has begun on the reauthorization of the half-cent sales tax to fund Fort Worth’s Crime Control and Prevention District. However, if you live in District 3, you might not be aware of the vote.

It would appear that Councilman Zim Zimmerman and his designee to the board, Brenda Silcox, have decided not to hold any District 3 meetings to discuss the virtues of this vital policing program. All other City Council districts are holding public meetings on CCPD. Zimmerman’s rationale was that the constituents in District 3 do not generally attend mass meetings.

Really? Since he has yet to hold one during his brief stint as a councilman, it would appear that he is not basing this on personal experience. He plans to rely on e-mails through the neighborhood association presidents. It will be hard to sort through because Tanglewood, Westcliff, Overton Park West and Overton Woods are bombarded on a daily basis with crime reports.

Of all the issues to be lazy about by turning your back on your constituents, crime is not one of them.

— Eric Fox, Fort Worth

Yes on AISD bond

I volunteered to serve on the Arlington school district’s Bond Advisory Committee because, as a recently retired principal, I was aware that the basic needs of the district are significant — especially because the last bond package was in 1999. The district’s motto, More Than a Remarkable Education, is not sustainable with computers that are almost 10 years old and cannot support today’s instructional programs or children whose classrooms are located in barracks-style portable buildings built in the 1970s. Also, it’s unnerving to think about buses that have logged more than 200,000 miles or the engineer’s "failure will close school" comment on maintenance reports of the mechanical-electrical-plumbing systems for older buildings.

The need is urgent for additional high school science labs to comply with the state mandate of four years of science — a commendable requirement but one that impacts next year’s seniors. And for a district that is in the top six in the nation for fine arts education, it is an embarrassment that many of the district-owned orchestra and band instruments are more than 30 years old.

These issues, as well as other core needs, are included in the $197.5 million bond package recommended by the citizens’ advisory committee. I encourage you to join me in voting yes for Proposition 1, AISD school bonds.

— Laura Jones, Arlington

As a retired school district administrator, I volunteered to help with the For Our Kids school bond campaign because I care about the students of the Arlington district.

Enrollment for the 17 elementary schools in east-central Arlington exceeds the combined seating capacity of these buildings.

At Atherton, Johns and Crouch elementary schools, 23 temporary buildings are used, causing some children to spend two years outside of brick and mortar. During each class period at Lamar High, almost a third of the students are scattered in the 28 temporary classrooms. The Arlington High cafeteria is too small to accommodate the students even with multiple lunch periods.

Looking for comments?