Tinted windows, new umbrellas, and front office renovations improve Bowie as construction encompasses the campus. Bowie metamorphosed this year, several projects were completed over the summer with some still in progress.

Current construction on campus is mostly related to the track and field, converting it to a turf field with funds coming from the 2017 bond initiative. According to AISD, this bond was about $1.05 billion dollars towards the district. The field is expected to be completed this winter break. 

“In addition to having a competition field with astroturf, it’s also going to include bleachers, a press box, a score board and lighting for that field,” Principal Mark Robinson said. “Which is going to be marked for football, soccer, and lacrosse.” 

With non-district individuals working during school hours, there is more activity on campus. Construction is often loud with people working and moving around, which can distract students in a learning environment. 

“Work during the school day is always problematic because a student’s school day is when most people have their work day,” Robinson said. “We’ve asked the contractors to be considerate of the primary purpose for why we’re all here, which is student learning.” 

The track and field renovations caused a rift in athletes’ normal routines as construction continues. Teams have had to move practice to different locations and have had to change their regular workouts to adapt to a different area.

“The cross country team has had to move practice to the tennis courts and the football team has had to move to Burger stadium where they then have to take buses to school from the stadium,” junior track member Clover Murray said. “This has interrupted the teams’ ability to practice fully because we’re not able to use our normal facilities.”

The athletes are looking forward to having an improved practice space. Although Murray has some doubts about

the field being completed in time for the season. 

“This work order has been in for five years, it’s unfortunate that they decided to start in July because of the disruption of practice,” Murray said. “I’m worried that we’re going to start the track and field season with no track and field.”

AISD’s 2022 bond initiative allowed for many changes across campuses with $2.44 billion approved by Austin voters. According to AISD; this went towards the addition of secure vestibules as a safety enhancement. Secure vestibules are an extra set of doors to provide visitor verification in the office. 

“I have been requesting a secure vestibule at Bowie for as long as I’ve been here,” Robinson said. “I asked that the district create a secure vestibule, but in interest in equity and not making one school more safer than others, they said that that would need to be a part of a bond initiative.”

Bowie’s HVAC is known to be unreliable so an alternative was needed for the students and teachers comfort. Assistant Principal Sam Cabrera and Robinson came up with a new solution of tinting the windows.

“One thing that Mr. Cabrera and I have talked about is how the second floor in the summer is hotter than the first floor because heat rises,” Robinson said. “We had to come up with a solution to cool the classrooms.”

Teachers in the upstairs E hall and B hall classrooms already see differences in temperature according to Robinson. In the future, Bowie plans to modernize older facilities such as the academic building and the G&H building. These improvements are still pending but according to Robinson they are on the horizon.

“At some point we’ll want to modernize the academic building and the G&H  building,” Robinson said. “I think it will make a big difference when people see it. I think that it will feel good, when you’re walking up to school, a little bit of school pride.”