, the mere mention of a building moratorium seems to have
spurred action on two fronts.
Well, the mere mention of a building moratorium seems to have spurred action on two fronts.
City and school district officials are talking seriously about how to formally resolve the lack of local funding for new school facilities, and developers, in recognizing the absolute importance of schools to our community, have begun to take steps and offer solutions.
South County Housing has offered cash and Shapell has offered land. Both are welcome, and both may lead to a solution. But truly what Gilroy needs is a solution that’s built into the building approval process so that it’s permanent.
It should be flexible, allowing developers to contribute in a variety of ways depending on circumstances, but it should be integral to building approval.
Fortunately, our city leaders seem to be prepared to move beyond the stalemate that existed. We’re no longer stuck with the district crying poor and the city crying that its hands are tied.
There is a will to find a solution, and with that there will be a way to make sure new schools accompany new development without undue burden on the school district.
It’s important that the current momentum not be allowed to lapse. And with a lame duck superintendent in charge of the Gilroy Unified School District for only a few more weeks, that burden will fall to our elected leaders on the GUSD Board of Trustees and the City Council.
If this is allowed to languish without resolution, Gilroy will find itself in the same untenable situation a few years from now. New homes bring new students and they require facilities in which they can be educated. A process and fee structure that provides regular, adequate funds as new houses are occupied must be developed.
As representatives from the city, school district and building community work toward sufficient funding for school facilities, they should keep this principle top of mind: Builders can erect schools less expensively that school districts can.
Taking full advantage of the expertise that comes with developers makes good fiscal sense. Let’s encourage developers to build school facilities whenever possible.
Doing so offers financial advantages – it’s possible that compliance with Davis-Bacon prevailing wage provisions might not apply, for example – as well as economies of scale, experience and expertise.
Funding new school facilities is an absolute necessity, and a hallmark of our general civic commitment. We should not be a community with a glistening $29 million police station and overcrowded schools teeming with aging portable classrooms.
Gilroyans – newcomers and long-time residents – want and deserve reasonable and well-planned school facilities.
Our leaders should ensure that is, going forward, exactly what will happen.
