With the completion of Christopher High School on the horizon,
Rucker and Rod Kelley elementary schools are next in line to
receive a chunk of the bond money voters approved last
November.
With the completion of Christopher High School on the horizon, Rucker and Rod Kelley elementary schools are next in line to receive a chunk of the bond money voters approved last November.
A little over a year ago, Gilroy voters authorized Measure P, which allowed the sale of $150 million in bonds to fund district construction. Since then, the district has committed about $79 million of Measure P funds to specific projects, and will budget an additional $54 million soon. With this money, the district completed the first phase of Christopher High School, built fences at El Roble and Glen View elementary schools, overhauled Gilroy High School’s heating and air conditioning system, and began planning for a new wing of classrooms at Las Animas. Paying off debt will claim $33 million, according to district documents.
As the school district knocks facilities projects off its list with the help of local tax dollars, trustees and district officials believe they will be able to deliver on the promises they made to the public when campaigning for those dollars.
“I think we’ll be able to finish most, if not all, the projects we talked about,” trustee Denise Apuzzo said.
Big ticket items to commence in the coming months include the completion of Christopher High School – which will relieve overcrowding at Gilroy High School by eventually accommodating about 2,000 students – the modernization of Rod Kelley Elementary, the renovation of Rucker Elementary and the addition of a wing of classrooms at Las Animas Elementary, a project that will accommodate the unexpected growth in the district’s southwest quadrant.
Rod Kelley will receive a new food service area, library, computer lab, restrooms and five classrooms. The district will also replace 12 portables cluttering the school yard with permanent classrooms at a cost of $14 million – money that will come from Measure P unless the district can secure state funds.
At Rucker, the district will basically “start from scratch,” Superintendent Deborah Flores said. The district will use $13.6 million from Measure P to rebuild the aging rural school and add a kindergarten and five classrooms for upper grades. Deputy Superintendent of Business Services Enrique Palacios also expected to receive state funding for Rucker’s construction, though he was not sure how much.
Both elementary school projects will take an estimated two to three years to complete, Flores said.
Building the second phase of CHS, which includes a performing arts center, an additional classroom wing and a parking lot, will cost $36.7 million – $10 million from the state and $26.7 million from Measure P.
Applying for state matching funds allowed the district to turn the $150 million provided by Measure P into at least $200 million so far, Palacios said. He hopes developer fees will add to the district’s revenue streams once construction picks up again.
The district originally estimated the second phase of CHS to cost closer to $60 million but an economy that has many construction firms clamoring for jobs will work in the district’s favor, boosting competition for work and keeping prices down, Flores said. Phase two is expected to be finished in August 2011.
Missing from the district’s revised list of projects is a new elementary school. Earlier this year, district documents mapping out Measure P expenditures included a new elementary school but the board recently voted to add classrooms at the existing elementary schools to accommodate up to about 850 students at the schools that have the space, Flores said. Doing that will boost the district’s elementary school capacity by the same number of students a new school would accommodate at a cheaper price, she said.
Once development picks up, the board will revisit the idea of building a new elementary school, Flores said. Flores believes a combination of state funding and Measure P money – including the $20 million saved on Christopher High’s second phase – will build that school when the time comes, however. The district can keep costs down by using an existing elementary school design and waiting for developers to build the infrastructure necessary to open a school near Santa Teresa Boulevard and Miller Avenue in southwest Gilroy on a plot of land the district already owns, Flores said.
A combination of factors, including future development, the economy and the influx of families coming to Gilroy, makes the future “difficult to predict,” Palacios said.
“There’s been no new housing in the past couple years, yet we continue to grow,” he said.
Families doubling up in existing homes and investors turning foreclosed houses into rental properties have contributed to that growth, he said.
Another piece of the puzzle is a $7 million deficit in the district’s general fund next year, Palacios said. Though that pot of money is separate from the district’s facilities budget, the general fund could impact construction plans if the board decides to increase class sizes next year to close the deficit, Palacios said. Increasing class sizes means fewer classrooms, which means less construction, he said.
“There are a lot of moving pieces,” he said. “This is our plan but it’s subject to change. Just because it was on the ballot doesn’t mean we have to do it right now.”
Even if the district had the manpower to initiate all its projects at once, it wouldn’t have the money. The district will sell the $150 million in increments, and only has $50 million currently at its disposal. It will sell subsequent bond series in 2011, 2014 and 2017.
Though Measure P will allow the district to inject much needed funds into some of Gilroy’s oldest schools, like dirty laundry, the district’s goal of improving facilities is never done, trustee Francisco Dominguez said.
“There’s always a greater need than resources,” he said.
“We could be back to the voters in a few years,” Palacios said. “We don’t know. The reality of public education funding is that it relies on bonds, measures, parcel taxes – and more so nowadays – than state dollars. The state has been cutting us left and right.”
