((EDITOR’S NOTE: Read other coverage of the 2015 Athens ISD bond here.)
By Michael V. Hannigan
Kyle Henderson, who is best known for being the pastor of First Baptist Church in Athens, believes in the $59.9 million bond proposal facing Athens ISD voters. He believes in it enough that he is a co-chairman of the Bond Advocacy Committee, a group dedicated to getting the bond approved whose members call themselves BACers.
But he realizes the bond’s price tag is going to be an issue for some people, and he understands their concern. He just doesn’t believe this is the right time for that type of thinking.
First understand that Henderson is not some blind follower of everything coming out of the AISD administration building. He will quickly tell you that he has voted against some of the district’s bond proposals in the past 18 years.
He will just as quickly tell you that his no votes were not based on money.
“It had to do with the strategic plan and the direction of our schools,” he said. “That has radically changed.”
He said the issue before voters isn’t about money, it is about responsibility.
“I live in an American society where I am responsible to pay my way and to pay for my kids and to pay for them for generations to come,” Henderson said. “Somebody paid for me, somebody paid for my parents, somebody’s going to pay for the kids after me and my grandkids. We’ve all got to do it. That’s what I think. I don’t want to get something for free, I don’t want to live in a Communist country. I live in a country where we pay our way.”
He is aware that spending money isn’t always a popular message with voters, however.
“We’ve had people in leadership whose motto was ‘let’s not spend any money,’ and they were able to pull that off for enough years because people before them had invested,” he said. “And then what they did was decided to deny long-term maintenance and re-investment in the community in order that they could get kudos for saving money, and now we are getting to the end because we did not invest.”
He said Athens no longer has the luxury of standing pat.
“Over and over in our community, people got pride points for not spending money,” he said. “And now they’re gone and the rest of us are left holding the bag and that is terrible leadership. That is not courageous leadership. That’s not telling people the truth.
“This bond is telling people the truth. If we are going to become the city we want, if we are going to train people the way we ought to, we have got to pay the price to do this now. Because we can’t put this on anyone else’s shoulders, we can’t deny the need. We’ve got to do it,” he said.
Kyle Henderson speaks at the Athens ISD convocation Monday, Aug. 17. (Photo from Athens ISD Facebook page)
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