The Sun
Sunnyvale's Newspaper

Voters pass Measure H by nearly 80 percent

By Steve Enders

Measure H overwhelmingly passed last Tuesday night, with nearly 80 percent of those who voted approving the $144 million bond proposal. Although just 21 percent of the 91,000 registered voters in the district went to the polls, that was more than enough to carry Measure H to victory. It needed at least two-thirds' approval to pass.

"We couldn't have done it without the students," said Bill Wood, an independent consultant working for the Tramutola Company, the firm that the district hired to run the campaign. Student volunteers, he said, were articulate and worked hard to see the measure pass.

Money from the facilities bond will be used to upgrade faulty infrastructures at each high school. It will cost homeowners up to $30 each year per $100,000 in assessed value.

A week has passed since the special election, and district property management coordinator Gene Longinetti is left with the daunting task of seeing that millions of dollars are spent on the right things at five different high schools over the next 25 years. Longinetti oversaw the closure and subsequent facility upgrades at Sunnyvale High School in 1982, so he feels comfortable making similar decisions that will be needed to carry out Measure H.

"It was a vote of confidence from the community," he said of the election's outcome.

Over the next eight years, $119 million will be spent at the district's high schools. An additional $25 million will be spent on further upkeep during the following 25 years--a stipulation in the measure of which Longinetti is proud. In case anything goes wrong with the new equipment or additional repairs are needed, he said, the district will have the capital to fix it.

"We want to expedite the process, but we don't want to be hasty and make bad decisions," Longinetti said of his upcoming duties.

During the campaign, Longinetti said, he had strong leadership and guidance from people like Kevin O'Reilly, Yes on H's co-chairman, who was principal at Gunn High School when Palo Alto Unified School District passed a similar bond issue in 1995. Measure H was modeled after that bond, among others previously passed by voters in school districts throughout the South Bay.

O'Reilly said he was relieved that the group achieved its goal.

"You do your best and do everything you can, and then it's in the hands of the voters," he said. "We were hopeful, but you never know for sure." The folks at Yes on H knew for sure, O'Reilly said, at about 10:30 on the night of the election.

Outside Measure H headquarters the day after the election, an elderly woman passed by and offered a congratulatory remark to a visibly tired Longinetti. She also warned him, however, to make sure the money is spent well and encouraged him to continually inform the community on how and where it's spent.

He told the woman that one of the next steps in the process will be to form an oversight committee, which will make sure each dollar coming from the bond is spent wisely. Longinetti said that the committee will be made up of school, business and community leaders selected by board members. Such a group can offer a system of checks and balances to make sure the money is being spent properly, Longinetti said.

Longinetti expects members of the committee to be selected and approved at the May 5 school board meeting.

In November 1996, Longinetti and a crew of engineers, architects, teachers and students began meeting to assess the needs at each high school. Nobody was left out of the assessment process, he said.

Although that group came up with what Longinetti called "a sound master plan," the actual blueprint for what needs to be done hasn't been drawn up yet. Longinetti and the district were waiting to see the measure pass first.

Now that the bond has passed, it will be Longinetti's job to see that all teachers, administrators, students and community leaders are again involved in forming a more specific plan. If anyone is left out this time, the project won't be completed properly, he said.

"It's like when we built the new science buildings at Fremont and Homestead. All of the affected parties were consulted, and now you don't hear any complaints," he said.

Drawing up those specific plans will be the work of the contractors, builders, engineers and architects whom the district will hire over the next several months.

"They'll be experts in this type of work," Longinetti said. "We'll bring in consultants, architects and engineers and select the most qualified. Right now, we don't know how many or who they'll be."

On the day after the election, Longinetti said it would be premature to give a timeline on when specific repairs would get under way. Right now, though, he did say that small, nonstructural repair work may begin by this summer. Major projects will take between 12 and 18 months to plan and pass through the state's approval process, Longinetti said. He said the first priority of the district is to find the right team to design the projects.

"We need someone who's qualified. We'll have them prepare a résumé and documentation of past work that's been completed," he said.

Even though there is no concrete timeline, he said, "the first thing on the agenda will be health and life safety issues." He added that he doesn't think the schools are unsafe, but seismic retrofits, for instance, need to be done more quickly than some other renovations on the list.

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This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, April 22, 1998.
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