On this November's ballot, GUSD will have a $150 million bond issue for school facilities construction. This bond measure, if approved by voters, will take effect after Measure I, the current $70 million bond voters re-approved six years ago sunsets in 2011. There is quite a laundry list of projects listed in the bond language, yet there is no requirement any of the projects will be guaranteed to complete. The bond language merely enables GUSD to spend the money on the projects. Christopher High isn't the only project on the bond project list.

Imagine it this way: You want to build a house (GUSD list of projects), so you interview and find a contractor you are happy with. You have a set of plans drawn up (again the list) and arrange for construction financing, usually at a bank (the $150 million bond). Your contractor gives you an expected completion date, you mark your calendar with a big "X" and smiley faces and you eagerly wait for the process to start. The home is finished plus or minus days or weeks of the anticipated date and you move in. Everyone's happy and you drive into the sunset much like John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John in Grease. (Insert huge record scratching sound here) If voters approve this bond measure, the sunset will never be reached.

There is no completion requirement in this bond's "charter."

GUSD is not required to complete anything. They can spend the $150 million getting 10 different projects halfway done. Christopher High School could end up looking like the Mussallem project on Miller Avenue, and there is nothing the city or anyone else could do to force the project to completion. Board of Education meetings might not be great fun should that happen, but all any of us would get for our $150 million besides seven more-flustered trustees is a handful of possible unfinished project attempts.

I do not think GUSD would intentionally start work they couldn't finish, but they are not an organization highly skilled in development, construction, or project management. They have a dismal track record of finishing projects on time and on budget, hence needing a new bond.

They are an organization highly skilled in educating K-12 students. Test scores, dropout rates, and progress in ESL often challenge my last assumption, but when it comes to teaching, they're all Gilroy has in large-scale availability. Before the Montessori and home-school folks burn my Dispatch picture in effigy, notice I did say in large scale. There is not a Montessori or home-school program capable of instructing 10,000 students in all of the required disciplines GUSD has to provide daily.

Are you wondering why we haven't gotten any advertisement for the school bond issue? I sure am. I got the first library bond issue flyer from the City of Gilroy just yesterday. Why haven't we seen outreach from the district yet? Could it be that they might want this bond issue to actually fail and satisfy one of the major requirements in Anna Caballero's (D-Salinas) AB2173? Remember that AB2173 will enable GUSD to more quickly and easily impose much higher Tier II developer fees on building projects because to qualify for Tier II fees a district has to have gone before the voters to seek bond money and failed. That's right, the big pot of gold GUSD has been unable to touch is within reach as long as GUSD has a failed bond issue under its belt. This bond may be that belt notch. Food for thought, people.

Blue Collar Comedy Tour comedian Ron White uses another interesting mantra, "You can't fix stupid." That tongue-in-cheek zinger is so apropos at times that he used it to name a recent DVD of his. GUSD might take into earnest account the sentiment, if not the literal translation. So should we as voters: No guarantees of completion and a looming question of whether GUSD wants this bond passing or not.

Ben Anderson Columnist Ben Anderson is a long-time Gilroyan and father of two fantastic teens. You can reach him at heyben@bdkr.net. His column is published every Wednesday.