Hoping to fund improvements to its facilities throughout the district, the Manhattan Beach Unified School District Board voted on Dec. 9 to hire a prominent Californian political consultant to determine the feasibility of putting a bond on the ballot in the November 2016 election.
The district selected Tramutola, which helped the city of Berkeley pass the nation’s first soda tax in 2014, and with whom the district said it has worked with before.
“Tramutola has worked collaboratively with our clients to plan for and win over 300 local tax elections that have produced almost $40 billion in new revenue for community facilities, services, and programs,” the firm, started by Larry Tramutola, said in its application.
Earlier this year, another firm hired by the district, DLR Group, surveyed the physical conditions of all of its campuses and made $320 million worth of recommendations in a 10-year Facilities Master Plan.
The school board approved the plan on July 15, but has said that it doesn’t think it would be able to afford all of the improvements.
Tramutola and a survey firm it recommended working with, True North Research, will gauge the level of the community’s support for a bond.
The district will pay the two companies $84,000 for their work.
In its application, Tramutola also noted that it helped the Torrance Unified School District pass two bonds in the 2014 election approving $200 million worth of renovations and new building, some of which had been outlined in a longterm master plan in 2007.
Manhattan Beach voters approved a $68 million bond in 2008 that paid for upgrades at Mira Costa High School, Measure BB.
“With the successful completion of the Measure BB bond project constructing a new state-of-the-art facilities at Mira Costa High School, and the development of a district-wide Facilities Master Plan, Manhattan Beach USD is well poised to implement a long-term plan that will provide all students with educational facilities that are commensurate with the educational experiences that the District provides,” Tramutola wrote in a letter with the application. ER
