District plans to use bond money to rebuild schools
Current parcel tax ends in 2002
By Rebecca Ray
The Los Gatos Union School District is asking residents to vote for a $91 million general obligation bond in the June 5 election to help the district renovate and repair five aging schools.
"That's our only way of renovating and repairing our school sites," district Superintendent Mary Ann Park said.
Fisher Middle School, the newest of the schools in the district, opened in 1961. Other than new classrooms that were added in 1966, and a gym added in 1981, the school has the same facilities it did when it opened.
Although the district is in line to receive $6 million in state building funds, none are available at this time, Park said.
Also, the current parcel tax, which will be up for a voters' renewal in 2002, doesn't cover renovation or construction. The tax has supported music, art and science programs and added 23 teachers to the district over the past 11 years.
Unlike the parcel tax, where residents pay a flat fee of $250 per parcel each year, the annual amount residents would pay for the Measure B general obligation bond would depend on the assessed values of their properties. Property owners would pay $54 per $100,000 of assessed valuation over a period of about 30 to 40 years.
If Measure B passes, construction work will begin in summer 2002, and will occur over a of six- or seven-year period, Park said. Architects are already designing new rooms for Fisher and Louise Van Meter Elementary School, which was built in 1949.
According to Park, an independent citizens' oversight committee would audit all Measure B projects to make sure they were completed on time and within budget.
Although the four elementary schools and one middle school look good on the outside--buildings have been well maintained and landscaped--facilities are worn-out and aged on the inside, Park said. The schools have their original wiring, plumbing and bathrooms. The bathroom floors, which have the same tiles they did when the bathrooms were built, have also absorbed odors over the years, according to Park.
District officials say they want new facilities because the current ones don't meet students' needs. When the schools were built, each classroom had one plug. This may have been enough 40 or 50 years ago, when the only devices teachers plugged in were record players and film projectors. Now, classrooms have electrical equipment school officials then had never considered, such as televisions, VCRs and personal computers. Although electrical outlets have been added over the years, there still aren't enough to meet the needs of modern classrooms, Park said.
Schools are also overcrowded. Rooms that were once used for music, art and science programs and computer labs are now regular classrooms, while special programs are conducted in multipurpose rooms, on stages, or wherever else there's space. Throughout the week, music teachers must switch rooms, which poses a problem, Park said. Some rooms have poor acoustics, and students become distracted in multipurpose rooms ,when other groups use them at the same time, he added.
To compound the problem, demographers from Lapkoff and Gobalet estimate district enrollment to increase by a projected 200 students in the next five years. For the district to maintain the state-mandated 20 students per classroom in grades K through third, it will need 10 more classrooms to accommodate the additional students. According to Lapkoff and Gobalet, the district, which has about 2,800 students, could increase by as many as 400 students in the next five years.
The district has been able to maintain a similar student-to-teacher ratio in fourth- through eighth-grade classrooms, because the $250-per-parcel tax adds teachers to the district.
If Measure B passes, district officials plan to add at least two classrooms to each school. Each school will also have new flooring, wall surfaces and lighting, a "flex room" to be used for special programs and more storage space. Schools currently need more places to store hands-on science materials, animals for science experiments and musical instruments, Park said.
At Fisher, district officials want eight new science classrooms to replace the current ones--some of which weren't designed for their present use--and a new building with six regular classrooms. According to Park, the district would like to have science classrooms with enough water and electrical outlets for experiments, a demonstration station for the science teacher, high tables with stools and proper ventilation. District officials are using the future enrollment figures estimated by Lapkoff and Gobalet to decide how many new classrooms to build at Fisher. They are also including the current student-to-teacher ratio.
If the schools get more rooms, the smaller rooms could be used for one-on-one sessions by tutors and their students who need special help, as well as Triad small-group counseling sessions, Park said. Triad is a group the district uses to provide psychological counseling for students.
"It's becoming so our educational program is limited by our facility needs," Park said.
Los Gatos, California Since 1881
