City schools get $69 million boost
The Gilroy Unified School District received a $69 million shot
in the arm for infrastructure repairs and upgrades Tuesday night
when 62.7 percent of Gilroy’s voting population passed Measure
I.
City schools get $69 million boost
The Gilroy Unified School District received a $69 million shot in the arm for infrastructure repairs and upgrades Tuesday night when 62.7 percent of Gilroy’s voting population passed Measure I.
“I’m very happy. We all are. This is huge for the district, the parents and the kids,” said Gilroy Unified School District Superintendent Edwin Diaz when he learned the measure had passed.
For backers, the second time proved to be a charm. Last March, Gilroy voters defeated a similar Measure D, which failed to receive the required 55 percent for passage. It got 52.9 percent yes votes and 47.1 percent votes against the measure-losing by a mere 146 votes.
On Tuesday, the measure won by more than 2,000 votes.
Diaz credited the victory with a strong campaign and a bond measure that weighed heavily on public input.
“After Measure D was defeated, we held community forums and did a survey that addressed the needs of the district and concerns of the public. Once people understood our facility needs and we added the building of the first phase of a second high school in the district, people were more receptive to it. We also did a better job at getting the vote out this time,” said Diaz.
The measure also had additional backing.
Gilroy Mayor Tom Springer, who was opposed to the measure on the first go around, came out in support of it once it was determined that construction of a new high school for 1,800 students would be part of the measure.
Last month the entire Gilroy City Council publicly supported the measure, as did Santa Clara County Supervisor Don Gage.
Now that the bond measure has passed and the money will soon be rolling into the district, a tentative construction schedule will be worked out and the long list of projects will be prioritized.
The district will also set up an oversight committee to ensure that the money is properly allocated.
“It will be made up of community-wide citizens who want to participate in the process,” said Diaz. “They will help implement the district’s total facilities plan.”
Besides the new high school, the bond will provide money to upgrade all schools for safety; construct additional classrooms for overcrowding; rehabilitate outdated classrooms, science labs, libraries and cafeterias; repair/replace leaky roofs; upgrade deteriorated restrooms, plumbing and sewers; replace inefficient heating and ventilation systems; improve electrical capacity and access to technology and rebuild Eliot and Las Animas Schools.
“This allows us to carry out the goals of the district,” said School Board Trustee T.J. Owens. “Kids need a decent school to go to. Some of our schools are 40 and 50 years old. You don’t even live in a house that long without refurbishing it.”
The money from the passage of the measure will be generated by secured bond sales. Principal and interest on the bonds will be payable from the proceeds of tax levies made upon the taxable property in the district.
This means that the district will collect roughly $60 for every $100,000 that a house is assessed for the next 25 years. The measure tacks on the additional fee to the current property tax bill but only looks at the home’s assessed value not it’s current market value, which is often dramatically higher.
One of the biggest benefactors in Tuesday’s decision will be Gilroy High School. It is slated to receive 16 improvements including the renovation of its classrooms, a new heating, ventilation and air conditioning system, an expanded library, 10 portable classrooms to help alleviate overcrowding and a 1,000 seat indoor/outdoor cafeteria.
Gilroy High School was built in 1977 and was designed to house 1,800 students. Today there are 2,472 students on campus.
The unorganized opponents of the measure argued that the district has had plenty of money over the years but mismanaged it. And the concern is that the money could be spent elsewhere if a future school board opts to do so.
By law, every Measure I dollar must go directly into facility upgrades.
“It’s too bad that so many people voted so stupidly,” said Alan Viarengo who strongly opposed the measure. “Edwin Diaz, who was a slacker of an instructor when I was at Gilroy High School, and the teachers’ union will just let some other schools crumble, and in 10 years or less they’ll come back-again holding district children hostage, saying how they need to raise already-high property taxes yet again.
“When the lie known as Measure J passed in 1992, I then predicted they’d come back well before it had expired. They did,” said Viarengo. “As long as people vote taxes upon themselves, Diaz and his puppets will continue to count on our future stupidity, be it with the current Board incompetents or future incompetents.”
According to Diaz, most of the structural improvements and upgrades won’t begin until next summer. The district is also actively seeking to purchase a site for a new high school in the central/northern part of the city.
In all, the district says that it needs $155 million to meet all of the district’s facility needs. With $69 million coming from Measure I, the remaining $76 million will be made up with existing budget, projected state revenue for deferred maintenance, state general fund maintenance expenditures, $21 million from Prop 47 and private grants.
