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The San Diego Unified School District says it will cost $2.1 billion to fix and renovate all of its aging schools. The district doesn't have the money to pay for repairs. That's why San Diego school officials are pushing Proposition S on the November ballot. The question is whether taxpayers are in the mood to support a $2.1 billion fix-it list. KPBS Education Reporter Ana Tintocalis takes a closer look.
History teacher Travis Ward unlocks the door to his portable classroom at Kearny High School.
Ward:
Floors just look bad. The walls are scuffed.
This once temporary classroom is now a permanent fixture on c38us. Steel grates cover the windows. The desks are wobbly and mismatched. Ward says its hard teaching in these conditions.
Ward:
These desks have been here for 20 or 30 years. They're pretty torn up. And there's no air flow. It’s really hard to get anyone to focus because they're (students) just so tired. They just want to put their head down.
Gavera:
We really need air conditioning, especially in the computer labs.
That's Robin Gavera, a senior at Kearny High. She says it’s too hot in the summer and too cold in the winter. Gavera also says roaches and rats are known to roam the hallways and get inside lockers.
Gavera:
I'm really proud of the people at this school, but I'm not proud of the c38us. And when I meet people who are upper class, and I tell them I'm from Kearny High, they get a look on their face. They look down on us.
San Diego school officials say Prop. S would change that. The multi-billion-dollar school bond measure is the biggest proposal in district history. It would pay for basic repairs, maintenance, and renovation at 180 c38uses.
Bill Kowba is the director of facilities planning and operations for San Diego Unified. He says Prop. S is needed because the average school building in San Diego is 40 years old.
Kowba:
Going back that far and coming into the present, we've got many generations of architecture, design, building materials in our facilities. And trying to raise the common demonator of capability for us is daunting.
A six-inch thick binder on Kowba's desk shows how daunting it is.
Five-hundred pages
detail all the repairs needed at the schools. Kowba cracks it open to Euclid Elementary.
Kowba:
This is a school built in 1938. As I look down the list, you see things like, installing a Wi-Fi network on c38us. Repairs in terms of heating, cooling and ventilation. Doing a lot of fix-ups in the classrooms.
One complaint about Prop. S is that it doesn't have the 'wow-factor' that the district had in Prop. MM, a $1.5 billion bond measure approved eight years ago. Prop. MM paid for the construction of four new, state-of-the-art c38uses.
District officials say Prop. S may not have that sizzle, but it’s just as important because it will prevent existing schools from falling apart. It will also pay for the latest classroom technology and new career tech program.
Pat Flannery is a critic
of the proposed bond measure. He says those projects may sound nice, but he believes the district has turned to the taxpayers once too often.
Flannery:
It is absolutely a bail out. It’s not going to solve the problem. I'll predict right now that in five, ten years from now, there will be the same kids going without air conditioning.
If approved, Prop. S would extend the existing Prop. MM tax rate until the year 2044. That means residents would have to pay about $67 for every $100,000 of assessed valuation.
Flannery says that's excessive.
And that message might resonate with voters this year.
Pollster John Neinstedt
says 2008 might mark a turning point when it comes to support for school bond measures.
Neinstedt:
The question is when I'm fearing for my 401K or job, how much money can I really be putting toward education and schooling. It’s tough to see how the rational could work in favor of a bond measure.
But school officials say the voters cannot pass up this chance to help district schools. They say the continued aging of the schools, the growing backlog of repairs, and the concern over the increased costs of construction means the time to act is now.
Ana Tintocalis, KPBS News.
