Brownwood ISD and the City of Brownwood are looking into plans for a neighborhood revitalization plan to help improve neighborhoods around Brownwood schools to help prevent crime, ensure student safety and welfare, and improve the quality of the community.
Emily Crawford, BISD Community Relations, unveiled the initial plan to the Brownwood ISD School Board and the Brownwood City Council earlier this week called Pride for Areas Surrounding Schools or PASS.
Over the past several months Crawford has been speaking with Kevin Pate, City of Brownwood Development Services, regarding the possibility of a cooperative project involving both the City and BISD, and the combined efforts have resulted in a proposed plan.
The first area of concern was the “central zone”, which Crawford identified as the immediate area around Coggin Elementary and the Intermediate School. The area would be the already designated Drug Free Zone which is a 1000 foot radius around the schools.
“Our goal is to help neighborhoods make the grade,” stated Crawford.
Crawford explained that by cleaning up and enhancing the neighborhoods around the schools, it will make them not only more appealing but also safer environments for the school children. There are approximately 700 children on these campuses everyday that go through these schools, which are the only 4th, 5th and 6th grade campuses of the Brownwood ISD.
“Dilapidated buildings, boarded up homes, and other structures certainly invite things like criminal activity and drug use and those types of things that we feel are not necessarily a safe environment for our children,” stated Crawford.
The BISD would like to see the city and the school district partner together and with a combined effort accomplish the improvement for all of the school campuses.
City council and the BISD school board were given an outline of the proposal, organizing city departments where the police department, fire department, code compliance, animal control, and waste management would all have a part in the program. The school district would also lead by example to doing things on the campuses and facilities that show this is a priority such as increasing lighting on campus. Service organizations and churches could provide help to those who do not have the means or cannot perform the necessary clean up or enhancement to their properties, being a good neighbor to these residents. Examples given were painting, landscaping, and home repair.
“Together we can go into these neighborhoods, be a good neighbor and bring about these positive enhancements for the neighborhood,” stated Crawford.
Mayor Stephen Haynes expressed that he appreciated the tremendous effort.
“I applaud the effort,” stated Haynes, who had more questions on how the school district would propose implementing the plan.
Crawford stated that right now they have the proposed idea, making sure that both the school board and the council felt this is a good direction to move toward. The idea had been presented to the BISD school board, who responded positively according to Crawford. Eventually a resolution will probably be passed by the school board and hopefully the city.
The next step is putting together the data which will be needed; scoring the area to determine what needs are present in order to know how to approach those. Then the staff and department heads will need to get together and see what it is that needs to be done and what steps need to be taken.
Mayor Haynes stated that many over the course of time have stated that clean ups all over the community are priority and it is something that is important.
“I see no better place to start than around our school zones and as we talk about trying to grow our community, and help other people move into the community, nothing is more important than those zones,” said Haynes. “People come to look at our schools and they want to know not only the quality of education is good, but they want to know where they are going to school.”
Haynes gave the councils’ appreciation and encouraged Crawford to bring a resolution to the council for consideration. The Brownwood ISD School Board also showed overwhelming support for the effort and encouraged the further development of the plan.
