Dan F. Breeden Elementary School is located at 3955 Dana Rd. Construction is in the finishing stages, and the school is expected to be complete by July. The newest addition to the Brownsville Independent School District was built to help alleviate overcrowding at both Paredes Elementary School - with 1,116 students - and Hudson Elementray School - currently housing 1,263 students.
However, the problem is, the school district has no date in sight to open the nearly $12 million campus. One of the main issues, is that there is not enough money.
"There was a point in time, during the last three years that I’ve served on this board, where (State Rep.) Rene Oliveira came down and told us to put the brakes on any construction - on any projects that were going to be your top dollars expenditures," Caty Presas, school board president said.
School board members in 2009 decided to take advantage of the Qualified School Construction Bonds created by the U.S. government with federal stimulus funds.
According to the district, the government will pay the interest on the bonds, which will save tax payers about 27 percent on the total cost of the new school.
Presas said that good deal two years ago, may now put the district on the losing end.
"If a building is built, you have a one-year warranty on the building,” Presas said. “Two - if a building is ready, it needs to be occupied, or the chances are that the insurance will not insure the building if it's not occupied"
School district officials said it usually costs from $800,000 to $1 million to open a school, considering they still need to furnish and staff the school.
There's a possibility the school could open mid-term, in January, district officials said. Presas said she hopes they will be able to open the school as soon as possible.
"Even after you build a school, you're going to have a payment,” Presas said. “So even if the school doesn’t open, you're still going to have to make the payment."
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