Monrovia School Link ~ Number 160 ~ March 8, 2006
I don't think I've ever seen a school board get a standing ovation before, but tonight the Monrovia School Board got one. More on that in a minute, but I just wanted to mention that this report is just about the 5:30 p.m. special meeting on the school bond. Maritza will file a report later on the regular meeting later in the evening.
~ brad@sacklunch.net
BOND ON BALLOT ~ As you may recall, the board earlier voted NOT to put a $37 million bond measure on the June ballot, but the uproar was pretty enormous from people who wanted the bond, so the question was again put on the board's agenda. Well, tonight the board still rejected a $37 million bond. Instead it bumped it up to $45 million and passed it unanimously, so the bond proposal will appear on the June ballot.
The decision came after numerous comments from a packed audience, all of the comments in favor of a bond, and some of the comments from people who had previously objected to the measure, and others from people who said they had come to object to the proposal, but changed their minds.
What changed their minds?
Well, Superintendent Louise Taylor presented a nice financial slide show with three scenarios. One was the original bond proposal, the one that would sort of combine the payments of an already existing 1997 bond measure with the payments for the new bond, which would mean no real tax increase but the bond ultimately cost a lot more to pay off. Two was for the same amount of money, but it didn't combine the payments (so the annual tax rate is higher but it would ultimately be cheaper). Three was an "Oh, let's just go for it" bond of $45 million, that would fund a lot more improvements at the high school. Like the second scenario, it would be separate from the 1997 bond.
The opponents of the bond said they were pleased to see scenarios two and three because their only objection had been the ultimately higher cost of the first scenario.
Then, what was interesting, was that the two people I thought were least likely to vote for the bond, Rich and Shaw, were the two who made the motion to adopt it. Rich made the motion and Shaw seconded it.
I thought the most perceptive comments came from Bryan Wong just before the vote.
He said that the uproar about the bond actually turned out to be a good thing because it brought a lot of attention to the bond. He said that because of the "energy" that he's seen he is "comfortable" with going with scenario three, although all of the district's bond advisors have said that it won't pass. But, he said, because of that energy, he thinks it can. He said he thinks that he can tell his neighbor in good faith that "for the cost of an extra tank of gas each month you can have a state of the art high school."
But then he gave a little warning and abruptly ended:
"If the enthusiasm is lost," he said, "the high school is lost."
So, what does this $45 million bond buy, assuming the voters approve it?
- A new science lab building
- Classroom modernization
- Converting the old science building to be regular classrooms
- Heating and air conditioning work
- A regulation size gym
- Improvements on the stadium
- Technology
- An all-weather track
- An artificial turf field (which member Gililland said would save watering expenses)
- An arts building
At the end of the meeting, after the vote and during the cheering, I glanced up and saw a pleased Bryan Wong lean back in his chair with cheeks puffed out as he blew sort of a "Whew! That's over."
What was it Churchill said? Something about it not being the end, but the end of the beginning. Well, that was the end of the beginning, but the main battle - getting the measure passed, especially since it's larger (in one sense) than the consultants advised - is, as Wong said, the crucial issue, and it's coming up fast.
So... nice going, school board. Why don't you take some time off to relax. Say, from about midnight to 4 a.m. Then, how about some tours of the science building to show its problems? I'm up for it. And, at the risk of being repetitive, now's the time to start giving the detail I've been whining about. I'm 90 percent convinced that the bond is a good thing, but I'd like to be up at 100 percent.
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