29 Oct San Benito restarts aquatic center plans nearly eight years after 2018 bond vote

San Benito voters approved a $40 million bond in 2018 that included the district’s first aquatic center, alongside a performing arts theater and an indoor practice field. Nearly eight years later, the district has built neither facility: the theater is under construction at a new site, and the pool project is starting over, according to the Valley Morning Star. The school board on Tuesday chose Brownsville-based GMS Architects to draw up preliminary plans, the first step in a second attempt to build it.

GMS is already working on the district’s performing arts theater and will also act as project manager for the pool, Superintendent Fred Perez said. He said the firm will help the district decide what it wants in the facility, which the district hopes to use for a new swim team and for swimming lessons for elementary students. Board members have visited Los Fresnos CISD’s aquatic center and plan to see others, he said. Board President Orlando Lopez said he was glad the project is finally moving and pointed to GMS’s track record with the district.

Officials expect to settle on a site by summer. Perez said he is considering San Benito High School, where the district owns land near Bobby Morrow Stadium and its other athletic facilities, because building there would save money. No construction schedule has been set.

Money will be a constraint. The aquatic center was budgeted at $8.8 million in 2019 as a 20,416- to 22,000-square-foot building with an eight-lane competition pool and a warm-up pool. Perez said prices have risen significantly, and he estimated that about $6 million of the 2018 bond money remains. How much is left for the pool depends on what the performing arts theater ultimately costs, now about $24 million. The district has also sued companies tied to the first construction attempt, which it abandoned in 2024 over what district officials described as foundation flaws, and hopes any recovery will add to the budget, he said.

Here is how we got here:

• 2018: Voters approved a $40 million bond package, with 54% in favor, covering a performing arts theater ($21.3 million), an aquatic center ($8.8 million) and an indoor practice field ($5.7 million).
• 2019: The district hired the Edinburg-based Brighton Group as project manager for a fee of $1.25 million, based on estimated construction costs of $30 million. The practice field did end up being later completed.
• October 2021: San Antonio-based Davila Construction began work on the theater and aquatic center.
• January and February 2023: A district report put total costs near $44 million, up from the original $40 million estimate. In February, the board voted 6-0 to end the Brighton Group’s contract without cause, with the project about halfway finished. A district report from early 2023 listed the aquatic center’s completion date as April 14, 2023, and showed Davila asking to move it to Sept. 19.
• March 2023: Then-Superintendent Theresa Servellon halted construction after the project architect, McAllen-based ROFA Architects, reported that some deep foundation columns were misaligned.
• January 2024: The board found Davila in default, and the district said repairing the foundation problems was not practical.
• October 2024: The district settled with Davila’s insurer for $13.3 million. The district said it had paid Davila about $12.7 million.
• November 2024: District officials said the performing arts theater would move to a new site, leaving behind two partly built structures along Interstate 69 that cost about $12 million.
• January 2025: The district sued companies it holds responsible for the problems. The suits are pending.
• 2026: Work started on the $23.9 million theater at the Veterans Memorial Academy campus.