Free Lance Editorial: SBHS should take its time on expansion

At some point, the San Benito High School District must expand and build a second campus. That some point, however, is nowhere near the radar in a county where residents are primarily concerned about getting by in the short term rather than betting the farm on the future.
San Benito High School trustees spent $45,000 on a consultant who will analyze options for renovation of the current high school site, a plan for a potential new campus and to help evaluate a possible site acquisition for a new campus.
It is a well-acknowledged ideal in the county among political leaders, educators and residents alike: San Benito High School – which is nearing 3,000 students – needs expansion to accommodate an enormous enrollment that grew with the same ferocity as the general populace during 1990s and early 2000s. Capacity has been a top-of-mind issue at the high school district for more than a decade. Its officials about five years ago even started the process they are now re-igniting. 
The district’s timing is curious, though, in moving ahead on expansion plans and possibly taking a bond question to voters. Economics aside, the argument has been weakened significantly with slight declines in enrollment over the past couple of years, likely the result of those boomers’ children reaching adulthood.
More important, we remain in the wake of the Great Recession in a county with a 16 percent unemployment rate in December and continually mounting foreclosures. Considering the devastating cuts to public schools in recent years, local school districts – of all government organizations – should grasp the painful reality of the economy’s impact on families.
San Benito High School officials must have ignored the Hollister School District’s failed 2011 request from voters for a $96 parcel tax – an annual amount that could be dwarfed by the long-term bill for a second high school campus. It is all but impossible these days, after all, to buy a new high school campus for less than $100 million – around the price tag of the recent Hollister wastewater plant construction that still causes more teeth grinding than lunch for city ratepayers. 
Compounding the timing dilemma, any potential ballot question would come along as the City of Hollister attempts to convince voters to extend the 1 percent Measure T sales tax. That vote is expected in November. Even that – raising about $3 million annually from taxpayers – is a politically tough sell.
The district instead should work on a longer-term strategy of selling the message to the public that San Benito High School is bursting at the seams. It should compile and report quantitative and anecdotal evidence – such as “X” number of students getting crammed into a physics or physical education class – to begin the process of educating the community for when the timing is right. 
The investment, though, would be far too alarming to hold any water in the short term. By the time it does become a reality, these prospective plans would be outdated. The data will change. Costs will change. Sentiments will change.
Ultimately, district officials must look at this overly ambitious goal from the voters’ perspective: If many taxpayers can barely pay their electric bills, if they are recovering from foreclosures or trying to avoid losing their homes, if they are just getting by on unemployment benefits or Social Security, why would they even consider this as anything more than a fantasy? Why would others who are fed up with rising taxes and bloated pensions and the declining state of education consider it as more than a pipedream? Why would a general populace that understands the urgency of the stagnant economy commit so far into their uncertain financial futures?
School officials must re-focus their attention on reality and work on improving the quality of education and getting better results from local students. If economic circumstances improve drastically and work in their favor down the road, they can think about buying the mansion later.