School bond faces revote
The Central Valley School Board agreed Monday night to ask voters to reconsider a construction bond that failed in March.
The new vote would take place during the Nov. 7 general election.
On March 14 the district’s $55.2 million construction bond failed, receiving only 56 percent of the vote. Sixty percent was needed to pass. Voters did, however, approve a three-year maintenance and operations replacement levy that pays for 16 percent of the district’s annual operating expenses.
The board will hold a special session to look at options and estimated costs for the bond. The exact amount and scope of the proposed package will be determined at an upcoming board meeting, most likely on June 12, district spokeswoman Melanie Rose said.
“The cost of construction goes up every month we wait,” Superintendent Mike Pearson said.
Pearson said that inflation for building costs is about 8 percent to 12 percent a year.
A November election, with several issues on a ballot, would cost the school district less money than waiting and holding a one-item special election next spring, Pearson said. He pointed out that several groups will be promoting voter registration for the general election.
The Central Valley Citizens for Education “Kids First” group, which worked for the passage of the March bond, said there were new parents in the school district who weren’t registered to vote, so voter registration drives would benefit their campaign.
The original construction bond package included a new elementary school at Mission Avenue and Holl Road, a new middle school at Boone and Ormond, and the remodeling of Greenacres, Opportunity and Ponderosa elementary schools.
Facility upgrades, including technology and cooling systems for Broadway, Chester, Progress, Sunrise and University elementary schools and Summit School were also part of the original bond package.
“I believe that we will probably use the same package,” said Lynn Trantow, board president.
Central Valley district officials say the construction bond is needed to ease overcrowding in the eastern part of the 80-square-mile district, where enrollment has increased 3 percent in the past two years. During the previous decade there was an increase in student population of 1 percent a year.