Let’s hope that the Pleasanton school board has a list of sizzling projects for voters to consider when it decides on July 30 whether to place a $270 million bond measure on the Nov. 8 ballot.
Its five members waffled a bit during their four-hour-long board meeting July 7 over how to spend the bond money, which has to be part of a committed project list voters can see before they vote. Several speakers and even board president Jamie Hintzke suggested at the meeting that the board isn’t ready to take the bond measure to voters..
“With so many different options we have never talked about,” maybe the board should wait until next June, Hintzke suggested. Former board member Steve Brozosky agreed, calling the proposed projects on the July 7 list “not exciting.”
But waiting would not be wise, and we urge the board to go forward with a Nov. 8 bond measure. State Proposition 39 allows school bonds to be approved by only 55% of those voting, but only during a general election. To wait for June and a special vote-by-mail election would raise the passage percentage to two-thirds. In past parcel tax elections, the school district failed to gain a 2/3rds majority.
Also, the school district needs the bond money now. Lydiksen Elementary is faced with rapidly deteriorating structural conditions and needs $30 million for reconstruction. The big gym at Amador Valley High School is sinking.
Alisal Elementary also needs major facility improvements at an estimated cost of $51 million. Other older schools with mostly wood structures also need repairs. Even new schools have problems, with Pleasanton Middle School teachers grabbing garbage cans to catch water from roof leaks.
There’s general agreement that Pleasanton needs at least one new elementary school at a cost of $40 million to build. The bond commits $35 million to that project. With the district’s enrollment temporarily dropping this year from 15,000 students to 14,200, that need may come later. Several thousand new apartments are under construction, with more to come. The most recent demographer’s report predicts that the district will have more than 17,000 students by 2025, well within the lifetime of this proposed 30-year bond.
With a low interest rate (the percentage yet to be determined), the first $17.7 million of the bond monies will go to pay off the principle and interest of still-outstanding certificates of participation due in 2029, saving the district $3 million.
Proposals for a bond measure started at $468 million, but on June 28 board members agreed that a realistic proposal should include bonds of $312 million, $281 million or $234 million. At the July 7 meeting, they settled on the $270 million figure.
The bond measure will require a tax of $49 per $100,000 of assessed valuation for Pleasanton property owners. School staff pointed out that assessed valuation is different from market values and, because of Proposition 13, many properties have assessed valuations far below recently acquired properties, where assessments are closer to market values.
The board will hold a special public meeting at 9 a.m. Saturday, July 30, to vote on a resolution to place the bond on the ballot. The district has until Aug. 12 to supply the Alameda County Registrar of Voters’ Office with completed documents in order to qualify the bond for the Nov. 8 election.
