The Gilroy Unified School District recently issued pink slips to
dozens of employees. Consumer confidence is down. Foreclosures are
way up, along with prices of groceries, gas, and almost everything
else.
Are trustees in tune with the current economic climate?
The Gilroy Unified School District recently issued pink slips to dozens of employees. Consumer confidence is down. Foreclosures are way up, along with prices of groceries, gas, and almost everything else.
So, it’s surprising that in this economic climate, GUSD trustees approved hiring a firm to ask residents how they feel about passing not one, but two new taxes in November. The investment banking firm of George K. Baum & Company will conduct phone surveys of Gilroy voters to see if the district has a chance of passing either a bond to pay for building and improving facilities or a parcel tax to pay for operations – or perhaps both.
Tom Bundros and Rhoda Bress raise valid conflict concerns
If the survey results lead the district to pursue either or both measures, then George K. Baum & Company will start collecting fees from GUSD to guide it through the process of placing the measure or measures on the ballot and campaigning for passage. We share valid concerns raised by Trustees Tom Bundros and Rhoda Bress about the objectivity of a survey conducted by a company whose potential to earn fees rests on the results.
We commend them for raising the difficult questions about this and urge them to take a close look at the questions asked and the process used to determine who is surveyed to minimize that risk. GUSD doesn’t need a push poll, it needs an accurate assessment of the mood of Gilroy voters.
Beyond that, we hope that all involve understand that besides the current woeful state of the economy, both of these measures carry significant baggage. Passing a parcel tax for operating expenses has never been done in the district. It’s difficult to predict what voters will think about it.
Missing the broadside of the barn on CHS costs a community issue
And the district passed a bond a few years ago that promised a new high school – which has ballooned from a projected cost of $38 million to an unbelievably whopping $181 million – and it hasn’t even been built. It’s quite likely that the district’s failure to adequately estimate costs for building Christopher High School when it passed that bond will create a level of mistrust among voters that will be difficult to overcome.
We understand that the school district must contend with California’s broken school funding system. We encourage local control of tax dollars to the greatest degree possible. But we also counsel caution when dealing with a survey with a built-in conflict of interest and expenditure of scarce tax dollars in pursuit of more tax dollars.
Act now:
Reach the board:
Javier Aguirre
Denise Apuzzo
Rhoda Bress
Tom Bundros
Francisco Dominguez
Patricia Midtgaard
Jaime Rosso
