An elementary school district in Montecito has a bond measure on the Nov. 3 ballot.
If approved by voters, Measure L2020 in the Cold Spring Elementary School District would provide $7.8 million for classroom and building upgrades, safe drinking water and campus safety, among other improvements.
The district includes Cold Spring School at 2243 Sycamore Canyon Road in Montecito. The public elementary school serves about 170 students in transitional kindergarten through sixth grade.
“L2020 is going to be a tremendous benefit for our school and help continue the high-quality educational services we offer the children at Cold Spring School,” district Board of Trustees president Jennifer Miller said.
A property owner within the boundaries of the district would pay about 1.3 cents per $100 of assessed value if the bond measure is approved by voters. That would provide an average of $527,525 annually while bonds are outstanding.
The primary purpose of the bond program is to replace three aging and deteriorated portable buildings with permanent classroom buildings, district officials said. It includes construction of new science, engineering, technology and art classrooms, according to the ballot language.
The classrooms are needed to maintain a low teacher-to-student class ratio that is the cornerstone of the Cold Spring School model for personalized and individualized instruction, according to district officials.
“The most important feature for this bond is the replacement of our school portables. They are falling apart,” Miller said. “The dream is to replace them with actual buildings with actual classrooms, and keep our small class sizes that have led to the success of our school. With COVID and everything else, it’s a tough environment, but it got to the point where we have to replace these.”
There is no formal opposition filed with the Santa Barbara County Registrar of Voters.
However, community member Denice Spangler Adams is overseeing the so-called Taxpayers for Responsible School Spending to recommend against the bond measure.
“What I know is we pay a heck of a lot of money, and we don’t know how it’s spent,” Adams said in a statement Wednesday. “It’s time to get answers.
“Parcel owners will get a postcard in the mail giving reasons to vote no: community, integrity, fiscal responsibility and trusted leadership matter.”
The bond measure proposes infrastructure improvements, including water and sewer upgrades, better electrical wiring and a new fire alarm system, according to district officials.
“These improvements and upgrades are overdue and need to be addressed in the immediate future,” Yuri Calderon, the district’s chief business official and general counsel, said via email.
The district will be relocating the front office to improve campus security and circulation as part of the new construction, Calderon said. The bond also includes a “small amount of money” to modernize classrooms and restrooms, plus ADA-compliant upgrades, that require renovations and repairs, Calderon said.
The district considered the bond measure two years ago, Calderon said.
“Unfortunately, the district was faced with two major disasters, the Thomas Fire followed by the Jan. 9 debris flow,” Calderon said. “At the time, the governing board decided to wait two years before pursuing the bond program.
“Now, two years later, the governing board again considered the bond program and determined that the improvements could no longer wait. Enrollment is increasing, and the portable buildings are reaching the end of their useful life.”
If the bond does not pass, class size would increase because of the lack of classroom space, Calderon said.
Under California law, bond measures need 55 percent approval to pass.
If approved by Montecito voters in November, the district plans to conduct annual financial audits on the use of bond monies spent, and all bond expenditures will be monitored by an independent citizens oversight committee.
Last year, one of the three portable buildings deteriorated to a level that required the district to remove it for safety reasons, Calderon said.
Replacing three portable buildings with new classrooms will provide the district with the space needed to meet the needs of the students and community, Calderon said.
“We anticipate that the remaining portables will reach that level of deterioration in the near future,” Calderon said.
Findings from surveys of families and the community, as well as the input received for the development of the district’s Local Control and Accountability Plan, found that the top priority is the reduction of class size, Calderon said.
“This is achieved by hiring an additional teacher and identifying classroom space for that teacher,” Calderon said. “To achieve this goal and action item, the district took over the library and converted it into a classroom.”
In addition to the amount of bonds issued, the district intends to seek state funding, according to a resolution approved by the district’s Board of Trustees in June.
The board resolution stated, “Each project is assumed to include its share of furniture, equipment, architectural, engineering and similar planning costs, program/project management, staff training expenses and a customary contingency, and escalation for unforeseen design and construction costs.”
School officials initially discussed a bond measure of $9.8 million on the ballot this fall.
“We decided to go for a lower amount to be cognizant of the environment that we are in and with COVID happening,” Miller said.
In 2019, a survey conducted by the Los Angeles-based research firm Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin, Metz & Associates, known as FM3, showed that 71 percent of potential local voters would support the $9.8 million bond measure on the initial reading.
FM3 interviewed more than 85 likely voters in the Cold Spring district from Oct. 19, 2019, to Nov. 7, 2019, using surveys conducted online, cellphones and landlines.
“There is statistically no difference in the level of support for a $9.8 million bond and lower amounts,” according to FM3’s presentation.
In 2008, voters approved Measure C, which dedicated funding to repair, renovate, upgrade and modernize Cold Spring School. The bond measure authorized the district to borrow $2.44 million.
Voters passed the $2.9 million bond measure in 1996, allowing the district to build five classrooms and a music room, and revamp the auditorium.
The Cold Spring Elementary School District and the Goleta Union School District are the only school districts in Santa Barbara County with bond measures on the Nov. 3 ballot.
— Noozhawk staff writer Brooke Holland can be reached at bholland@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.