October 14, 2020
Dear Vallecito Community,
As most of you are aware prior to the passage of Measure E the District did not have the funds to hire an architect to specifically identify all of the structural, health, safety and American’s with Disabilities Act needs of our schools. In order to procure these funds, the School Board authorized the administration to submit to the voters a General Obligation Bond that became Measure E. At that point in time we knew of many of the issues that needed to be addressed but without the expertise of a professional architect and the ability to submit complete plans to the Department of the State Architect we did not know the total scope of work and renovations our school’s required. The best we could do was estimate our needs knowing that we did not want to over burden our taxpayers and understanding that by being conservative with our request enhanced our chances of being successful with voters. It is now clear that we underestimated the cost of what was required to adequately renovate our schools.
One of our goals with Measure E was to keep the annual cost of the bond to property tax payers consistent with what they had previously paid in a bond that will soon be ending which amounted to $30.00 for each $100,000 of assessed value yearly. Because of favorable interest rates and other factors, the cost of Measure E only turned out to be approximately $23.00 per $100,000 of assessed value. With this information in mind the School Board has authorized Measure I for the November ballot. Measure I will accomplish 2 things. First, it will provide the needed funds to finish the job we started providing 2.8 million dollars for projects that exceeded our Measure E budget. Second, Measure I will keep the total bond cost to property taxpayers at the $30.00 level the School Board originally promised. The average rate to taxpayers for Measure I is $7.07 per $100,000 of assessed value.
Specifically, Measure I will help renovate the Track and Field at Avery Middle School and provide the funds to complete the needed deferred maintenance items at the other schools. If you have questions, please do not hesitate to ask. My email is jfrost@vsd.k12.ca.us. Thank You!
Jim Frost
Superintendent
