If passed, $132M bonds would put Sul Ross Elementary students all under one roof, repurpose Milam Elementary

The temperature is just over 60 degrees Tuesday morning, so the second-grader at Sul Ross Elementary school tucked her hands into the sleeves of her bright blue sweater while she trudged outside of the school building to the nurse's office.

She wasn't alone, though: Mary Jane Gray, an instructional aid in physical education classes, led the brown-haired student along the sidewalk to enter into the main building.

The second-grader had fallen ill during PE, Gray explained. She is required to be escorted by a teacher or staff member from the gym to the nurse, for Sul Ross is composed of one main structure and three separate wings. The spaces between the buildings are wide-open, so anyone can, and does, move through the school grounds.

This means no children are allowed to walk around outside by themselves -- students moving from wing-to-wing to go to the gym or to lunch must walk in a line as a class along with their teacher, and children needing to visit the front office or nurse must be lead by a staff member.

After Gray dropped off the young student at the nurse's office, a front office staffer would call her parents to have her picked up from school or escort her back to her class.

"We're not enclosed, so we never want a child to wander outside of the building," Gray said. "They're always escorted, all the time. Safety is our main concern."

The layout of Sul Ross Elementary is one of the issues that district and campus officials wish to fix in order to increase student safety. The elementary is one of two Bryan schools that would receive a new campus if the $132 million bond issue is passed by district voters in November.

With voter approval, the district plans to construct a new school building that both improves the safety and security for the students and prepares for enrollment growth in the future. The new school would cost close to $16 million, according to the district's facilities master plan.

The elementary school was constructed in 1961 and was last renovated 14 years ago, said Sul Ross principal Kristina Brunson. As of Tuesday, 316 students were enrolled, and the building has a total capacity of 360, she said.

The new elementary school would hold between 600 to 650 students as a buffer for future growth. The new building would also be encapsulated, so all of the students and staff members would be under one roof.

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If passed, $132M bonds would put Sul Ross Elementary students all under one roof, repurpose Milam Elementary