What Proposition 2 would mean for Sonoma County school districts

This year, because Proposition 2 is also on the ballot, districts can double their local education bond dollars, with state dollars.
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Proposition 2 is asking voters to approve 10 billion in bonds to help renovate public school buildings across the state.

On top of that, some voters will have to make a decision to fund their local education bond measures.

There are ten Sonoma County school districts asking voters to approve bonds on the November ballot, like Roseland School District and Piner-Olivet Union School District. This year, there is an unusually high number of local bonds measures across the state, totaling over 250.

CapRadio’s education reporter Srishti Prabha explains what education bonds are and how they can be used.

[Sounds of playgrounds]

It’s an unbearably hot 91 degrees in South Sacramento as kids run between portable classrooms and the asphalt playground at Elder Creek Elementary School.

90 percent of this campus’ buildings are portable temporary structures that have been there for around 30 years. That’s according to Chis Ralston, the assistant superintendent of facilities for Sacramento City Unified.

"Some of them sit on either a concrete block, so incredibly energy inefficient," Ralston said. "They also succumb to the weather a whole lot faster, so the dry rock kicks in and ​​you start punching holes"

The portables line the asphalt absorbing warmth on a hot day, creating heat islands, which could be a health risk.

To address this, Sac City Unified is asking for $543 million dollars in bonds.

“A new school's costing us 70 million dollars and a campus renewal could be 20 to 30 depending on what we're trying to do,” Ralston said. “So our proposal in measure D would be to rip this school down.”

Bonds are not an uncommon way of funding long-term building projects.

The way it works is that the district issues bonds, which are essentially loans from investors.

Over time, the bond debt, with interest, is paid off by increased property taxes within the district’s boundaries.

And this year, because proposition 2 is also on the ballot, districts can double their local education bond dollars, with state dollars.

Kind of like when public radio donations are matched by other gifts.

Unlike local bonds, state bonds don’t increase taxes.

Instead, the state retroactively pays the debt over the next several years by using money from the following year’s general education fund.

The last time a state bond passed was in 2016.

Opponents of Prop 2, like Jon Coupal with the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers’ Association, feel the state should not take on more debt.

Coupal says more money should be allocated from the general fund to education.

“The responsibility for funding these facilities should lie with local entities,” Coupal said.

Prop 2 advocate Assembly member Al Muratsuchi co-authored the legislation to put it on the November ballot.

He says there is no more money in the state’s education budget and prop 2 would only cover a fraction of what they need.

“An already outdated study estimated that California public schools have over 100 billion dollars in K-12 new construction as well as modernization needs,” Muratsuchi said.

He says under prop 2, districts can use the money to build climate resilient infrastructure.

That's what Grant Union High School in Sacramento is already working on.

The high school partnered with UC Davis environmental design professor Patsy Owens.

She is excited to see students moving through their eco-designed outdoor hallways.

“Instead of what used to be a big bus yard that was all asphalt, it really became a place as water recharge systems,” Owens said. “It brought in the native plants, so brought in other more sustainable landscaping and it made a place where students want to be.”

The project took $1 million dollars, and is an example of how new infrastructure can improve student health and the environment.

If both state and local bonds pass, districts across California’s school---like Elder Creek Elementary---would get a major facelift, eliminating both the portable structures and potential heat islands.