School officials pin hopes on measure
CALEXICO — As principal of Calexico High School, Gabrielle Williams has the responsibility of overseeing the entire campus, including its faculty, staff and student body.
Increasingly, Williams’ attention has focused on the campus, its cracked sidewalks, busted ceiling tiles, leaking toilets and ruptured water pipes.
The high school first opened in 1952, and a recent districtwide facilities report recommends it be demolished and rebuilt from the ground up.
“Bottom line, it provides a service, but our students deserve better,” Williams said.
The cost of demolishing and rebuilding the high school would be about $71 million, the report stated, an amount beyond the current financial means of the Calexico Unified School District.
But, district officials are hoping come November, voters will approve Measure V, a $23 million general obligation bond that would fund three specific phases of districtwide facility improvement projects.
Measure V would cost property owners about $60 per $100,000 of assessed property value, and need 55 percent voter approval to pass.
If approved, Measure V’s first phase of construction projects would target the high school, where bathrooms are in dire need of improved accessibility, Williams said.
Besides bathrooms, and a laundry list of other issues, the campus’ crumbing water pipes are another major concern for Williams.
Nine times out of 10 a broken water pipe anywhere on campus will result in a shutoff of water for the entire campus, as well as the temporary rerouting of students around the impacted areas and the possibility of having to cancel school, since it can hardly be expected to operate without running water, she said.
“It was just a constant, constant challenge last year,” Williams said.
Along with Measure V, voters here will have the opportunity to vote for Proposition 51, a proposed statewide ballot measure that would issue $3 billion for new construction and $3 billion for modernization at K-12 public school facilities.
Should both Prop 51 and Measure V pass, the district would be able to apply for a possible $45 million in matching state funds to go toward facility modernization and remodeling projects, district officials previously stated.
The district’s bonding capacity could be substantially higher, were it not for its outstanding debt of about $26 million in connection to the Measure J bond, which was passed by voters in 2004.
A recent survey of registered voters the district commissioned revealed that 85 percent of its respondents were in support.
Yet, pitching Measure V to the public is made more complicated by memories of Measure J, a 2004 voter-approved $30 million general obligation bond also meant specifically for facilities improvement that wasn’t properly managed, said CUSD Board Trustee Norma Aguilar.
In 2012, an audit had revealed past district administrators had misspent $750,000 in Measure J bond proceeds. The audit also revealed that the district didn’t maintain adequate records demonstrating compliance with guidelines related to contracting and bidding.
Aguilar had been one of those tasked with investigating the misstep, and when it came time earlier this year for district officials to consider proposing a bond for the November ballot, she was among the first to call for strict oversight.
“I don’t want that same kind of experience and stigma that we had before,” she said.
The district’s bonding capacity could have been substantially higher, were it not for its outstanding debt of about $26 million in connection to the Measure J bond, district officials had previously reported.
Today, any reservations Aguilar may have had about supporting another facilities bond are easily dispelled by the presence of current district administrators, who deserve credit for paying careful attention to the district’s financial health, and implementing measures to ensure against any accounting mistakes.
“That’s why I feel so confident,” Aguilar said.
Should local voters fail to approve Measure V, critical facility improvements would be paid from other district funding sources that could otherwise be used for academic programs, and further delay other school improvements, according to information found on the district’s webpage devoted to answering questions about Measure V.
Recently, the district undertook a similar facilities modernization program, with about $10 million in state funds that went toward the high school’s gymnasium, and remodeling at Dool Elementary, to name just a few districtwide projects.
Those palpable changes should also help dispel any lingering doubts voters may have about current district officials’ ability to oversee another multimillion dollar bond, said Norma Sierra Galindo, Calexico High alumna and current Allied Health Professions program instructor.
Yet, she also questioned whether the city’s tax base would choose to have future financing go toward facilities improvements for schools that are attended heavily by students who do not live in Calexico.
At any rate, the district is obligated to provide a quality education to all its pupils and the current size of its student body highlights the need for additional districtwide facility upgrades, Galindo said.
“We’re bursting at the seams,” she said.