Irvine Unified to put $319M school facilities bond measure on June ballot
March 2, 2016 Updated 12:52 p.m.
The Irvine Unified School District will ask voters in June to approve a facilities bond measure that would raise money to improve aging school facilities.
The school board on Tuesday unanimously approved the formation of a school facilities improvement district encompassing 28 campuses and said it would seek $319 million in bond revenue to those schools.
Only voters within the district will get to cast a vote on the measure ? and only campuses within it will get funds for improvements.
Residential and commercial property owners would pay a yearly tax of $29 per $100,000 of assessed value if the measure is approved. At least 55 percent of voters would need to be in favor.
Parents, teachers and staff who spoke in favor of the measure gave several examples of why it is needed: Classrooms at Brywood Elementary School need doors; a teacher at Lakeside Middle School expects to lose more ceiling tiles when it rains the next time; orchestra practice at Irvine High School takes practice in the computer lab.
The district?s new schools and those currently under construction, such as Portola High School, in Great Park Neighborhoods, have state-of-the-art facilities.
?If we don?t do something, we?re going to become a community of the haves and have nots,? board member Sharon Wallin said.
More than 20 people spoke at the meeting, most in favor of the measure.
However, Gil Nelsen, whose two grown children attended Irvine schools, said the district should find another way to cover its facilities needs.
?Personally, I?m not willing to pay without a fight the $350 that I figured out you folks are going to get out of me based on my home in Woodbridge,? Nelsen said. ?Starting tonight the campaign to defeat this bond tax is underway.?
He accused Irvine Unified of mismanaging funds.
?I believe the district should have long ago created a major construction improvement fund,? he said. ?I believe you?re essentially creating a Mello-Roos tax for homeowners who moved into non-Mello-Roos boundary areas in Irvine.?
Steve Harlow, an entrepreneur who owns properties in Irvine, also spoke in opposition, disagreeing with the premise that the older schools require immediate upgrades.
?There?s a place called Harvard. Anybody ever heard of it?? he said. ?A lot of the buildings are a couple hundred years old.?
However, teacher Mary Thomas-Vallens, who has been at Brywood Elementary School since it opened, said the campus? condition is detrimental to student learning.
?Our school is almost 30 years old,? she said. ?I?ve been told some of our computers are older than our students.?
Janelle Cranch, president of the district?s chapter of the California School Employees Association, said the union?s 1,600 members support the measure; the Irvine Teachers Association does, too.
?Without additional facilities dollars we will not have sufficient funds to create equity in our schools,? Cranch said. ?This will have a dire long-term implication on our district and on the entire community.?
Irvine resident Kristi Smemoe, representing a group called Preserve Irvine Schools, said she agrees that local schools should get upgrades, but said the bond measure isn?t fair to some homeowners in the facilities improvement district.
Students in some neighborhoods not included in the district will attend schools improved by the measure, she said.
?We do want our aging facilties to be updated and improved,? said Liz Reed, also with Preserve Irvine Schools. ?What we have an issue with is the equitableness of this bond.?
The board did its best to make the bond measure as fair as possible, but there is no way to craft a perfect district, board president Paul Bokota said.
If voters back the measure, planning and design for facilities improvements would begin in 2017.
