SAN DIEGO – After weeks of often-confusing deliberations over what its massive fix-it list should include, the San Diego school board voted unanimously Wednesday to put a $2.1 billion bond measure on the November ballot.
Without any of the fanfare that surrounded the vote to put Proposition MM on the ballot a decade ago, trustees approved the ballot proposal that would repair and upgrade campuses throughout the San Diego Unified School District during a hastily scheduled meeting.
The bond would focus mostly on upgrades and repairs to the district's more than 200 schools. The district has put together a draft campus-by-campus project list that would renovate restrooms, install wireless networks in every classroom, and upgrade deteriorating plumbing and sewer systems, among other things. Minimally, schools would receive $150 per student in discretionary facilities spending.
Trustee John de Beck likes that “everyone is going to get something,” but last week characterized the proposed list of projects as “routine.”
“Let's put some dream into the bond and make it sizzle . . . do something that improves education, not just improves buildings,” de Beck said.
“I just got back from China. They've built the most amazing schools you've ever seen. They have athletic facilities for an entire grade level to play basketball at once.”
But de Beck said he believed the proposed amount made sense.
“We probably have greater needs, but $2.1 billion – that's the magic number,” he said. “That's the magic number that won't raise taxes.”
Bill Kowba, the district's chief financial officer, said a $2.1 billion bond allows the district to extend the current Proposition MM tax rate. Proposition MM was a $1.51 billion bond measure passed by voters in 1998 to build and repair schools.
Board President Katherine Nakamura said last week she would like to see the list of projects be more descriptive and better reflective of input received from the community.
“It's very boilerplate now,” Nakamura said.
Trustee Mitz Lee stressed the importance of informing voters that some schools are slated for fewer upgrades because they are newer.
Kowba said the major difference between this bond and Proposition MM is that it would focus primarily on upgrades and repairs as opposed to building many campuses.
“We are in different circumstances this year,” he said. “We have had declining enrollment over the last seven or eight years. We are not in the position to be going to a large-scale building project.
But the upgrades are badly needed, he said.
“The average age of a school in the district is 42 years old,” Kowba said. “Think of a school that old that has a high volume of kids and teachers in it well over half the year. We have to do a lot of things to maintain and improve the schools – upgrades to heating and cooling, security upgrades, technology insertion. These old schools don't have all the latest information technology.”
Sherry Saavedra: (619) 542-4598; sherry.saavedra@uniontrib.com
