Hollister School District officials are joining their counterparts at the San Benito High School District by weighing the placement of a school bond on the 2014 ballot.
The Hollister board is considering a Proposition 39 bond, similar to what San Benito High is weighing in its bid to possibly raise $39 million for a campus renovation. As is the case with the high school bond, the elementary district would raise $30 per $100,000 of assessed value with its measure as well.
The HSD bond could potentially be placed on the ballot in June or November of next year depending on when it would be more likely to pass, said Gary McIntire, superintendent of the Hollister School District.
He said the school district is now working with a demographer to come up with a number-generation rate that would show how many students the school district might have to accommodate in the years to come.
“That is crucial information for us,” he said.
He said any new construction will have a buildout of three to four years. He expects that developer impact fees will be enough money to make renovations and add trailers and other items in the next few years to accommodate growth.
“We’re thinking that we need to build a new school because of that (student) growth,” he said, referring to the number of housing developments in Hollister that have contributed to enrollment escalations in recent years.
But he said that the only way to do that is through a general obligation bond – and a new school.
“We’re looking to see whether the public would support a bond,” he said.
He said the board is weighing whether to pursue a bond in order to apply for matching state funds in the future. He said the state is not currently funding those bonds at this time. But if it does, the district could apply for those funds, he said.
But the path to do so may be harder because of the economy, said Rob Bernosky, the chairman of the county Republican Party.
“Right now, people are broke,” he said. “I don’t think this is going to be palatable to the people.”
But McIntire said the public often doesn’t understand how school funding works. The general operating costs to run the schools do not go back into building new schools, he said.
“We are in need of a new school in four to six years,” he said.
The board is in the process of preparing a survey of local voters regarding the proposed bond, the superintendent said. Still, McIntire expressed some concern about the potential of having San Benito High’s bond on the same ballot. He said that if two bonds are on the ballot at the same time, it would dampen the willingess of voters to support the HSD proposal. That’s a sentiment with which Bernosky agreed.
“When you do look at the entirety, I think they’re all destined to fail unless they’re coordinated,” Bernosky said of the bonds. “What’s most important to people when it comes to education is student achievement.”
McIntire said he would be prepared to put the bond on the ballot if the public supported it. Bernosky said he is “open-minded” to the idea but with the caveats mentioned.
“Unless the public passes a bond locally, our schools will be impacted by new students,” McIntire said.
