CARLSBAD: School district may raise developer fees
By STACY BRANDT - Staff Writer | ∞
CARLSBAD ---- School officials in the Carlsbad Unified School District have recommended the district raise its developer fees to help pay for renovation and construction projects.
If approved, developers or property owners would have to pay the district $3.02 per square foot for a new home and 47 cents per square foot for a new business within Carlsbad Unified's boundaries. The new rates would represent a 33-cent increase for new homes and a 5-cent increase per square foot for businesses.
The higher fees will affect construction projects within the district boundaries for which permits are issued Oct. 26 or later.
The school board is set to hold a public hearing on the proposed increase at 6 p.m. Wednesday at Carlsbad City Hall, 1200 Carlsbad Village Drive.
Also at the meeting, the board is slated to vote on a proposal to give principals and other administrators the same 1 percent raise that teachers received July 1, when the new fiscal year began. Superintendent John Roach said he had decided to hold off on the administrative raises until now because he wanted to be sure the district would have enough money.
It would cost the district about $40,000 a year to boost the salaries of its 30 administrators.
The board last increased developer fees two years ago. The state evaluates the fees every two years based on inflation rates in the construction industry.
At the new rate, a developer would have to pay the district more than $9,000 in order to build a 3,000-square-foot home.
It was unclear Monday how much the rate increase would add to the district's bottom line ---- that depends on how much construction happens each year.
"A lot more comes in when the economy is booming," Roach said Monday.
Walter Freeman, assistant superintendent in charge of business services, said he thought the fees would bring in only about $100,000 or $150,000 this year compared with the several hundred thousand that came in when more construction was happening.
The fees are set aside for construction projects intended to handle the students that new development may bring to the district.
During the last several years, the district has used money from developer fees to build a number of new campuses, including Poinsettia Elementary, Pacific Rim Elementary, Aviara Oaks Elementary and Middle, and Calavera Hills Elementary and Middle schools, Freeman said.
Some of the money would probably go toward the construction of a new high school and renovation of several existing campuses in the 10,700-student district.
Enrollment in Carlsbad schools has steadily increased during the last ten years or so. However, that growth is expected to slow or even reverse in the next several years, as the district works to limit the number of students allowed to transfer in from outside districts.
Because the district brings in more money from property taxes than it would from the state's attendance-based funding system, more students don't equal more money, as they do in most districts.
In June, the state officially designated Carlsbad Unified as a "basic aid" district, which means the district can keep whatever money comes in above the typical per-pupil amount that most districts get.
This relatively rare designation won't affect the amount of money the district gets in developer fees, Freeman said.
Contact staff writer Stacy Brandt at (760) 901-4009 or sbrandt@nctimes.com.
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FTM wrote on Aug 25, 2008 1:31 PM:I wondered when Roach would get around to raising your taxes. FIRST he slashed all the personnel at the schools and the parants put up with that thinking thier taxes would not go up. Now that he has fired everyone he can raise taxes on developers, (which means home buyers) and that pulls down the value of homes so everyone pays. (It's like a Mello Roose district). So now your paying more money in Carlsbad for LESS school! The same rip off you got on your police department you now get in your schools!
been there wrote on Aug 25, 2008 3:06 PM:FTM- Your comment is not entirely accurate. The "tax" is a one-time fee that is assessed to homes that are bringing new kids to the district. It's odd how people always want something for nothing. They want good schools for our children but don't want to pay for them. That's the way many people are about roads, parks, fire protection, national defense, clean food , Social Security, etc. Taxes are the price of a civilized society.
agree wrote on Aug 25, 2008 4:48 PM:I agree and think its the southern california thinking "we were here first why should we have to pay"? Good things cost good money and education is a good thing. If you want to live for free, with a wonderful education, move to cuba.
penny wise and pound foolish wrote on Aug 25, 2008 5:28 PM:You who begrudge the schools any and all increases in taxes to fund public education (despite the fact that everything costs more now) ARE PAYING FOR IT in ways you don't even acknowledge to yourselves: parents pay for private schools, music lessons, private tutors, sports programs, drivers education, etc. that schools used to be funded for until we became so cheap and greedy that we refused to vote for anyone who raised our taxes. Parents pay these hidden taxes at much higher rates than before, because taxes are broader-based.
And before you people without children start to gripe about how unfair it is to ask you to chip in when our schools aren't adequately funded, YOU pay plenty in poor services by undereducated workers, a poorer qualified work force to hire for your businesses, lower property values (good school districts raise the worth of your home), more unsupervised teens wandering the streets due to fewer after-school activities, and most important, a society that falls behind the rest of the world in medical research, scientific advances, innovation, and the intelligence we'll need to solve the problems facing us.
We will get what we pay for.
Vince wrote on Aug 25, 2008 5:30 PM:CUSD is probably the best district in North County. Hands down!!!
Incompetence wrote on Aug 25, 2008 7:36 PM:The unfortunate part of this story is that when citizens informed the board two years ago that they qualified for a different level of developer fees, they did not even know. Now, when the real estate market has been obliterated and builders are not building, it is the old cliche, "too little, too late."
We could have been the best school district, but we focused on irrelevant issues and blamed everything on funding for too long. It's a shame that when the Board was complaining about funding, they didn't know and then subsequently ignored this resource available to them.
The same folks are still running the show. We couldn't make a change in 2006 but maybe we should in 2008.
To Incompetence wrote on Aug 25, 2008 9:19 PM:On the other hand, maybe it takes a while to learn the finer point of the law for raising revenue, especially when a district is always behind the eight ball in funding. At least now the board (who also came in as citizens with other professions) is getting up to speed and to vote them out might mean a whole new learning curve for a new board.
lottery money wrote on Aug 26, 2008 8:13 AM:I don't understand how schools aren't overflowing with money. Years ago the lottery was promised to give 1/3 to the schools. And I don't believe that the legislators just cut the school budget once the lottery began. The machine wouldn't allow that.
INDIFFERENT wrote on Aug 26, 2008 10:14 AM:I have nothing to say about this.
Growth Management wrote on Aug 26, 2008 11:16 AM:Wait! Thought Buddy was ultra proud of no more growth? Where are these 'new homes' going? Student increase? Must not be near Magnolia or BV or don't you recall the district threatened to close those schools due to low enrollment? Wal-Mart in the barrio?
It is incompetence wrote on Aug 26, 2008 11:23 AM:While the school board is not expected to know everything, they are expected to be advised by & review the job performance of upper level (& highly paid) administrators who are qualified (& competent) to do their jobs.
Trustees should be asking if an opportunity was missed & if so, who dropped the ball.
Incompetence wrote on Aug 26, 2008 11:54 AM:The Board dropped the ball. Each one of them was specifically informed of this issue in 2006 and chose not to act. There would be a lot more money in the kitty if they did their jobs correctly, and didn't spend so much time infighting and worrying about ensuring the proclaimed village-like feel of CHS.
do your homework wrote on Aug 27, 2008 2:14 PM:The fees were raised then too. This Board is on it.
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