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RB School Board approves $52 million facilities bond
by Jason Dietrich
In a unanimous decision Tuesday night, the Redondo Beach School Board approved a putting a $52 million general obligation bond before voters Nov. 7.
Money from the bond would be used to repair aging school facilities and build new classrooms.
"Our schools are in pretty decent shape cosmetically, but they're tired. The infrastructure is pretty much done for," said Superintendent Bill Nunan. "The electrical and plumbing systems are nowhere near where they need to be. It's working, but it won't hold together much longer."
The refurbishing would cost property owners in Redondo Beach $27 for every $100,000 for which their property is assessed, said consultants. The bond would be paid off over 25 years.
At their meeting two weeks ago, board members heard the results of a telephone survey commissioned by school bond consultants Dale Scott and Company. 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 that the bond would need to pass in an election.
In order to get the votes the bond needs, consultants say, the community must be better informed about the state of the district's buildings.
"If you say you need to replace plumbing, you need to tell them why that plumbing needs to be replaced," said Mitch Templeton of Dale Scott and Company. The firm, which paid for the survey, plans to recoup its investment by selling the bonds if voters approve the measure.
Parent activist Kathy Swift agreed with Templeton's assessment.
"Since 80 percent of the people in the district don't have kids in the schools, they see a fresh coat of paint and think everything's great. There hasn't been an effort to talk to the community," Swift said.
Board members and staff felt more confident about the bond's chances. Though board members can't directly campaign for a measure, they can do their best to make sure the public knows about the state of the schools. Board president Robin Shaw said she'd make a fight to see it pass.
"There's no point in making a lackluster contribution," said Shaw.
State of the schools
In a report released last Thursday, district staff came up with a list of $72 million worth of projects needed to repair aging school buildings and expand current buildings to meet the needs of a growing student population.
Staff estimates an increase of 150 new students per year for the next five to seven years. In the past seven years the school system has experienced an enrollment surge of over 1,000 students in the 7,200-student district.
In the coming years, that swell will mostly be felt at the high school level, where district officials plan to add classrooms if the bond passes. If enrollment continues to grow at the elementary level, reopening Fulton and Patterson schools has been discussed as a possibility. Money would be set aside from bond revenues to help get them back in shape.
But if the bond doesn't pass the school district will manage with the funds it has, officials said.
"We're committed to providing the best environment for our kids we can with the limited resources we have," said Tom Cox, assistant superintendent in charge of facilities. "But we can't re-pipe our schools without this."
If the bond floats, the district officials are counting on getting as much as $19.5 million in matching funds from the state government to complete their projects. But state funding requires that a district already have the funds to match with. Fees paid by developers to the city, money from the state for deferred maintenance and interest from the Special Reserve Fund that was set up after the closing of Aviation High School could also be used to help meet district needs.
Dollars at work
Many of the district's schools are nearing their 50th year of service. In many cases, the wires and pipes are just as old, leading problems such as higher-than-acceptable levels of lead in water from some school fixtures and chronic sewer problems at Redondo Union High School.
According to the plan, the district's first order of business will be to look after the health and safety of students. That includes replacing decades-old plumbing fixtures and repairing water and sewage systems in the schools, up-to-date playground equipment, asbestos removal and earthquake refits. The total bill will come to just under $20.5 million.
Making the schools compliant with the Americans With Disabilities Act and installing fire alarm and communications systems is the next priority, which staff figures will run about $7 million. Rewiring the schools to meet the electrical needs of the computer networks the district plans to install will cost $13.7 million.
"You remember the old octopus adapters, where it looks like you have 20 plugs going into one outlet? Well were not far from that in a lot of schools," said Nunan.
Improvements to the inside and outside of the buildings themselves are next on the list, with a total price tag of more than $18.4 million. The project with the lowest priority is replacement of portable classrooms and the building of additional classroom space. Under the plan, every school in the district that has portables would replace some or all of them with permanent buildings, except for the Redondo Shores continuation school, which was built last year.
Redondo Shores would get some new facilities, as would Parras Middle School, which would add eight new classrooms. Beryl Elementary would also add six new rooms. Redondo Union High School would get the most new rooms. Four portable classrooms would be replaced with permanent structures and 12 new classrooms would be built at a total cost of nearly $2.7 million.
Redondo Union is celebrating its 98th birthday this August and would receive the lion's share of the bond money. The aging school needs about $25.6 million in upgrades, say district officials.
"You get to the point where you just can't patch any more," Nunan said.
Repairs to the existing building are estimated to cost $19 million, about $2.6 million of which would go to installing new fire alarms, communication systems and making the school compliant with the disabilities act. About $7 million would go towards an interior and exterior facelift and modernization of the school buildings, and almost $5.3 million would be used to upgrade electrical systems and wire the school computer networks.
But the biggest chunk of the repair money would be spent on fixing the school's aging infrastructure. More than $7.9 million would go to repair the school's utilities, updating the water, gas, sewer systems, repairing fencing, removing asbestos and doing seismic refits. The rest of the money would be used to cover planning, inflation and potential cost overruns. ER