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School district to consider $52 million facilities bond
by Jason Dietrich
The Redondo Beach School Board is scheduled to discuss asking voters to approve a school facilities bond on the November ballot at the board's Tuesday, July 25 meeting.
Based on the results of a telephone survey, consultants have recommended that the board put a school bond before voters in November to ensure the largest possible voter turnout. Of the more than 400 voters polled, 61.3 percent said they were in favor of a bond to modernize aging school buildings and add new facilities. That's just shy of the 66.6 percent of votes cast that the bond would need to pass in an election.
In order to get the votes the bond needs, consultants say, the community needs to be better informed about the state of the district's buildings.
"In this survey, the community did understand the needs of the district. But the district is going to need to communicate their specific needs to the community. If you say you need to replace plumbing, you need to tell them why that plumbing needs to be replaced," said Mitch Templeton of the Dale Scott Company, the San Francisco-based firm that is helping the Redondo Beach School District with the mechanics of their bond measure.
Part of the funds would be used to bring schools up to date. Many school buildings are over 50 years old and are in need of new plumbing, electrical and fire safety systems. Most buildings are also not wired for computer networks or other forms of information technology.
"50-year-old utility systems just don't cut it. You get to the point where you just can't patch anymore," said Superintendent Bill Noonan.
Money from the proposed bond could also be used to re-open closed schools and build new classrooms.
The school district is looking down the barrel of a population surge that could strain their upper level facilities in the near future. Redondo Union High School has an agreement with Mira Costa High School in Manhattan Beach to allow North Redondo teens to attend Mira Costa. But that could change because Manhattan Beach is experiencing a similar population bubble in its lower grades.
To help solve its problems, Manhattan Beach has approved putting a $26 million dollar school bond on November 7 ballot.
In late May, Redondo Unified contracted with Dale Scott and Company, the same firm that helped the Lawndale School District and the Centinela Valley School District with the mechanics of passing their bonds.
"When you're trying to figure out how to come up with the financing or asking voters to approve financing it takes a large amount of resources and time," said Dale Scott, of Dale Scott and Company in an interview in May. Contracting that effort out to professionals doesn't draw on those resources.
The Dale Scott company paid for a phone survey by the Price Research company to ask a statistical sample of Redondo Beach residents how they felt about the state of the school system, whether they would support a bond measure and for how much. If a bond is passed, Dale Scott and Company will sell those bonds, earning a broker's fee.
According to a report filed earlier this year, the district needs about $80 million dollars to get its facilities where it wants them. Those needs include everything from building as many as 50 new classrooms and replacing aging fire alarms to a remodeling of the Redondo High swimming pool.
The district initially asked the Dale Scott Company to find out how the public felt about a $60 million dollar school bond. Their research indicated that residents were more likely to support a slightly smaller bond, one that would mean less than a $30 increase a year in property taxes per every $100,000 of assessed value.
"The district has refined that $52 million. The rest of the money they'll get from state matching funds and figure out how to fund projects a different way. That puts the total cost at less than $26.91 per $100,000 of assessed valuation, which is right in line with the average amount voters in the state are willing to approve," said Templeton.
The district hopes to net $19 million in state matching funds to help complete the projects. Even with that extra money, Templeton warned against putting improvements not related to safety or education on the bond proposal.
"It not necessarily that the swimming pool is going to make it or break it. But you want to avoid things that could become hot buttons. If I were the district, rather than try and educate two thirds of the voters to support it, I would find another way to fund it," Templeton said. ER