ESCONDIDO: School district surveys voters about $98M bond measure
By: SHAYNA CHABNER - Staff Writer
High school district is looking at Nov. election for $98 M measure | ∞
ESCONDIDO ---- The results of a telephone survey of voter support for a proposed $98 million bond measure for the Escondido Union High School District will be presented to trustees Tuesday night.
District officials commissioned Godbe Research to survey as many as 600 registered voters last month to determine support for the measure, which would pay for upgrades to classrooms and facilities at the district's three comprehensive high schools and adult education school. The measure also would pay for construction of a magnet high school.
The survey is expected to say, in part, how much Escondido homeowners are willing to pay for the projects.
"I am very curious as to what the outcome is and what the consultants will tell us," said board member Charlie Snowder. "If you look at what we have done so far, the support has been increasing almost across the board by providing more information."
The results will be presented to the board by its bond consultants during a special budget workshop at 6 p.m. Tuesday at the District Service Center, 302 N. Midway Drive.
District officials and trustees have been mulling over a bond measure for several years.
They have said that the measure would ease crowding at Orange Glen, San Pasqual and Escondido high schools by adding classrooms and redistributing some of the students to a new 600- to 800-student medical-biotechnology magnet school in western Escondido. Each of the district's high schools serves 800 to 1,300 more students than the 1,500 students they were built to serve, district officials have said.
The proposed projects, which are part of a revised master facilities plan the district released last year, cannot be completed without a bond. The board has until Aug. 8 to decide whether to place the measure on the Nov. 4 general election ballot.
This is the first formal survey about the projects. The district has received some input from community members, parents and students through dozens of meetings and two mailers delivered to registered voters and parents in the last six months.
While many parents and students seem eager to have more room on campuses and have expressed interest in the opportunities the magnet school might bring, other residents have questioned whether it's wise to push for a bond in a faltering economy. An additional obligation on top of the struggling housing market, national credit crunch and growing state deficit ---- which has resulted in about $4.4 billion in proposed education cut ---- would be too much to ask, they have said.
In a board meeting earlier this month, trustees voted to send layoff notices to as many as 25 teachers, as one means of trimming about $3 million from next school year's budget.
"How do you plan to staff and fund the salaries for this additional school when existing positions will be cut?" Kathleen Scott, a resident of the Oakstone subdivision bordering the site for the proposed magnet school, wrote to board members in an e-mail last week.
Homeowners currently pay about $15 annually per $100,000 of assessed value on their homes for the last bond measure, which voters passed in 1996. That $43 million bond measure paid to replace portables with permanent classrooms and to build Valley Center High School. Payments on that measure will continue until 2021.
Those same homeowners also pay about $27.06 annually per $100,000 of assessed value on two bonds passed in the elementary district from1996 through 2002. Those cumulative payments run through 2027.
Contact staff writer Shayna Chabner at (760) 740-5416 or schabner@nctimes.com.
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dave from oceanside wrote on Mar 24, 2008 6:03 AM:My guess is with the economy in a recession most homeowners are more concerned about loosing their homes and not new taxes.
Especially when the schools are still teaching illegal alien's children at the tax payer’s expense.
This is exactly why the bond issues for Tri City Hospital failed, taxpayers do not want to fund illegal's health care any more then they want to fund illegal's education.
Tuck wrote on Mar 24, 2008 6:58 AM:Is this a joke? Very funny article!!! LOL
By the Time wrote on Mar 24, 2008 7:19 AM:they create the sob story with kids and the dire conditions they have to learn in, voters will vote FOR it. Please folks look through the smoke, learn the facts and shelve your emotions. Remember these folks are in their current positions because they are political. This means it is their job to tax and spend some folks to convince other folks they are doing their jobs. For a change say NO and tell them to take the money they currently receive, make the cuts they need to and use it. Good managers manage what they have long before asking for more.
NO Bond for EUHSD wrote on Mar 24, 2008 9:04 AM:There is a lot of negative feeling toward the EUHSD board memebers around the community. They went from area to area looking for a location for a comprehensive high school when the demographics did not support building one. Now, in the midst of lay offs, high energy and gas prices, foreclosures and recession, they are under the impression that tax payers can dig a little deeper into their pocketbooks for another bond? There is still a bitter taste in our mouths about the bond for Valley Center High School and we are still obligated for other bonds for the elementary school district, police, fire and the hospital. Right now is NOT the time to ask property owners for another bond. We're too busy trying to figure out how WE'RE going to keep our families fed!
Escondeeter wrote on Mar 24, 2008 9:51 AM:Hopefully the survey had a 'you gotta be putting us on' column.
OG Patriot wrote on Mar 24, 2008 2:04 PM:Orange Glen is not overcrowded. Stop the intra-district transfers that overcrowd SPHS and EHS and make the kids that live next to OGHS attend school there. Use what we have before we build new.
As is typical in these blogs, someone brings up illegals. The school district does not care where kids come from, they want butts in the seats so the state will pay for them.
vcguy wrote on Mar 24, 2008 3:08 PM:This budget reduction has been exploiting children. What other occupation uses kids to hold up signs saying save our schools, save our teachers, save out etc.
I guess the next time an engineer, secretary, cable guy or whomever losses their job because of budget cuts, they need to have their kids picket the company.
This is all BS. No more money for schools or teachers until tenure is abolished and all the classes are taught in english.
Karl wrote on Mar 24, 2008 4:04 PM:Are these folks kidding? To float a bond at this point in time is a sign of being totally unaware of what is reality.
bryan wrote on Mar 24, 2008 10:17 PM:Absolutely no, 100% no, how else can we explain it to the tax and spend politicians. No new bonds. The politicians have been asking for 100 million in new bonds every couple years. As the article mentioned we are already paying for school improvements. But of course they need more money. 30% of kids in our schools are illegals. If only 10% of them went back to their real homes in Mexico the government would not be asking for more money we would be closing down schools and saving millions. We should have an illegal alien tax or bond. Let the people decide if they want their taxes doubled or 100 million in new bonds every year to support the illegals. Do you really think that would pass? I don’t think so. No new bonds or taxes until the illegal alien war is solved.
Puzzled wrote on Mar 24, 2008 10:19 PM:Just how does the EUHSD propose to staff a new magnet school after giving 25 teachers layoff notices? This is a truly innovative solution to overcrowding -- layoff more teachers, build more schools, and hire more administrative staff. EUHSD's schools' test scores can't go anywhere but up if we jettison more teachers!
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