Vote yes on 3 school district bond meaures

School districts large and small need to maintain and upgrade their facilities to provide students with quality learning environments.

Three Santa Clara County school districts with widely varying needs are putting bond measures on the ballot that together total $321.5 million. Voters should approve Milpitas Unified School District’s Measure AA, Luther Burbank School District’s Measure HH and Mt. Pleasant Elementary School District’s Measure JJ.

To pay off the bonds, property owners will see their taxes rise.

None of the three districts tell voters the duration of the new tax in the ballot language as required by state law, which gives us pause. But all three have websites detailing the purpose of the bond measures and the history of past measures and parcel taxes (Milpitas Unified School District, Luther Burbank School District and Mt. Pleasant Elementary School District).

Milpitas Unified

Measure AA would authorize the Milpitas Unified School District to issue $284 million in bonds to primarily build a new high school at the district’s Ayer site and provide additional classrooms and science labs for the district’s overcrowded elementary and middle schools.

The measure needs 55 percent voter approval. It would cost property owners $60 per $100,000 of assessed value. Measure AA would add to the $46.30 per $100,000 of assessed value from the previous bond measure that Milpitas voters approved in 2012. Property owners also have an $84-per-parcel tax payment that voters passed with 73 percent approval in 2014.

The K-12 district serves 10,000 students in its 10 elementary schools, two middle schools, high school and continuation high school.

Milpitas High School’s growing enrollment stands at 3,210 students, which far exceeds the number of students it was designed to educate. The district seeks to use some $60 million of the bond funds to build a high school on the Ayer site at 1331 E. Calaveras Blvd. It would also house its alternate high school and adult education programs. District officials want to spend $90 million to update Milpitas High School. The measure would also fund new classrooms at the district’s elementary schools to alleviate overcrowding of schools.

Luther Burbank

Luther Burbank School District isn’t the smallest school district in the county, but it’s close to earning that distinction. The one-school district serves 560 pre-K-8 students in the unincorporated area of near the intersection of Interstates 280 and 880.

This bond measure will test voters’ confidence in the district. Measure HH, which requires twothirds approval, would authorize $10 million in bonds. Measure CC would cost property owners $88 per $100,000 of assessed value, in addition to the $117.80 that they pay for the bond measure passed by voters 12 years ago. Luther Burbank property owners do not have a parcel tax payment.

The previous bond built a new gymnasium and classrooms for the district’s upper school students. Measure CC would build new classrooms for students from pre-kindergarten through second grade and a new school library.

Mt. Pleasant Elementary

Measure JJ asks voters to approve $27.5 million in bonds. The bond measure would cost property owners $30 for every $100,000 of assessed value and requires 55 percent voter approval.

Mt. Pleasant Elementary’s bond tax rate of $39.60 per $100,000 of assessed value from Measure L, passed nearly 25 years ago, gives the district the fifth lowest bond tax rate of Santa Clara County’s 31 school districts.

Mt. Pleasant Elementary is one of the oldest districts in the county, serving 2,500 K-8 students in five schools, which are all more than 50 years old.

Measure JJ would replace the heating and air conditioning in the district’s schools and repair aging roofs. Mt. Pleasant also seeks to updates its technology programs, replacing its outdated wireless system and adding to and upgrading the tech devices used by students.