Photograph by Kathy De La Torre
An eighth-grade leadership class enters the newly renovated library at Redwood Middle School. A ribbon-cutting ceremony was scheduled for Jan. 27, to mark completion of the school's modernization and safety project, funded with Measure D bond money. A $6 million shortfall has the district calculating how to finish projects at Argonaut and Foothill schools
SUSD plans for $6 million shortfall
By Kara Chalmers
The Saratoga Union School District projects a budget shortfall of more than $6 million for its repair and modernization project that covers the four schools in the district--Argonaut, Foothill, Saratoga elementary schools and Redwood Middle School, according to SUSD Superintendent Mary Gardner.
The $40 million school bond, Measure D, which SUSD voters passed in a June 1997 special election, has funded the partially completed project, as have matching funds from the state.
Gardner said the primary reason for the shortfall is that the district has not received over $6 million in state matching funds that the district counted on, since the state's bonds have been depleted.
The district expected $9 million in total from the state, and so far, it has only received $2.7 million, according to Gardner.
But the money from the state was never a guarantee, according to Carol Shellenberger, a special assistant in the state agency, the office of public school construction. Shellenberger said that by the time the SUSD submitted a complete, approved plan to the office--which is required if a school district wishes to be considered for state school bond funds--the funds from Proposition 1A, the school facilities project, were gone. Shellenberger said that the office decided to fund all projects that it received by April 5, 2000, and no more, since the money was running out. The SUSD submitted complete plans in May, she said.
But besides missing state money, the construction costs, which have skyrocketed since the project was planned years ago and such "unknown conditions" as a $2.8 million problem with the foundation at Saratoga School, have caused the project to go over budget. Gardner said she could not say how far over budget, however. She added that the district hopes to get $1.3 million in reimbursements from the state for the foundation problem at Saratoga School.
"The bond was passed for us to modernize and make new construction at all four sites and we are going to do as much as we can do," Gardner said. "It's certainly not where we wanted to be. Because of the increased cost of construction, we're not going to be able to do all of it, at least at this phase."
On a positive note, Gardner said that growth in the SUSD has slowed, which means the district can build fewer classrooms than originally planned. Two classrooms for the new Argonaut School were cut from plans nine months ago due to slowing growth, Gardner said.
The district placed Measure D on the ballot in 1997 because the schools--three of which were built in the 1950s and one of which was built in 1923--were in desperate need of repairs and modernization. The schools were also using many portable buildings to fight classroom overcrowding.
The ballot language for Measure D states that the bond money would be used to make repairs in Saratoga schools; to renovate heaters; to conduct seismic upgrades and asbestos removal; to add electrical outlets to classrooms and to build additional classrooms. The only thing the language expressly excludes is that bond money be spent on salaries for teachers or administrators.
Measure D's cost to homeowners is estimated to be $39 per year per $100,000 of a home's assessed value.
Gardner said the school board is now studying the best way to maximize the dollars from Measure D and the state. She said she did not want to disclose any details that would restrict the board to one particular proposal.
Gardner did say the board is now reconsidering the construction at Argonaut and Foothill schools, as well as the "phase two" construction at Redwood Middle School, in light of the budget crunch. Work at Redwood Middle School and Saratoga School is nearly completed.
Gardner said the board would make a decision in the next few weeks.
At its meeting on Jan. 23, the board rejected three out of 30 bid packages for construction projects for Argonaut and Foothill schools, since the three were much higher bids than the district expected, according to Ellen Tipton, SUSD chief business official. Seven packages received no bids, Tipton said, and the district did not accept any of the remaining bids.
"We need to have a total construction cost before we commit to a complete package," Tipton said, adding that the district is working on getting a total cost now and then will go back out to bid on the three rejected packages. "We may have to eliminate a small portion of the project," she said.
When asked if the budget shortfall would necessarily affect Argonaut and Foothill schools more adversely than Redwood and Saratoga School, Gardner replied, "Certainly they're being affected by it, but it is our intention to do as much as we need, just over a longer period of time at those two schools."
But the district intends to keep the modernization project equitable, Gardner said. What has been budgeted for all four schools all along has not changed and it will not change.
"It's just that that budget is buying less today," she said.
She added that all children in the SUSD go to Redwood Middle School, so equity isn't an issue there. Also, one of the main reasons for the project was to distribute SUSD children in a way that more could attend Saratoga School. At Saratoga School, there are 16 new classrooms.
"The intention was to increase Saratoga [School] which was why we started with it first," Gardner said. "We have achieved that. Part of the reason we don't have to build as many classrooms at Foothill and Argonaut is because we have [new classrooms] at Saratoga."
One resident of the district and an immediate neighbor to Argonaut School, Wesley Ferguson, raised the issue of how the district has been following the language of Measure D throughout the modernization project.
The SUSD board has authorized certain construction that was never specifically mentioned in the actual ballot language for Measure D, or in the campaign materials, which were very specific, Ferguson said. Examples are the new administration buildings planned for both Argonaut and Foothill Schools, and a new multipurpose room at Argonaut School. Additional kindergarten classrooms and the relocation of day-care facilities at Argonaut School also were not mentioned in the ballot language or the campaign literature, he said.
According to Gardner, voters did not see a list of all the buildings planned for the project on the Measure D ballot, because of the limited number of words a ballot is allowed.
"So we named those buildings we were committed to in terms of renovating classrooms," she said. "In our master plan, on which the bond was based, we did include multipurpose rooms, administration areas and classrooms."
According to Ferguson, voters at the time were not made well enough aware of the master plan.
"The campaign literature made no mention of these things and that was [SUSD's] opportunity to make mention of these things if they were limited in the numbers of words they could use on the ballot measure."
Ferguson said he has long believed the SUSD has overstepped the boundaries of the bond in authorizing "additions" that weren't in the bond language or campaign literature. Now, he says that if anything is to be cut from the project plans, it should be the construction of these additions, but not classrooms, which he says is the only construction the voters authorized in passing the bond measure.
Gardner would not say what the district would cut first, due to the budget crunch, but she did say that at Argonaut School, the multipurpose building, which served as both the cafeteria and the assembly room, has already been demolished, which necessitates a new one.
According to Joyce Avery Berg, who chairs the citizen oversight committee on Measure D, the committee is satisfied that the district is spending the bond money legally and wisely.
She said that when the committee looks at the district's decisions on spending, it tries to keep in mind that funds must only be spent on repairs, modernization and alleviation of overcrowding at the schools.
"The committee itself is satisfied that the district is on sound footing for the types of facilities they're trying to construct," Berg said.
She said that while the bond language excludes spending money on administrators' salaries, it does not exclude spending on administration buildings. In addition, at Argonaut and Foothill Schools, where such buildings are planned, administration is currently housed in classrooms, so the new buildings would actually free classrooms at both schools.
Saratoga, California Since 1955
