As many Castro Valley school buildings surpass their 50-year mark, school district leaders are asking voters to help pay for needed repairs and upgrades.
The Castro Valley Unified School District’s $123 million bond measure will be on the June 7 ballot.
If at least 55 percent of Castro Valley voters approve Measure G, property owners will pay up to a maximum $60 per $100,000 assessed value.
“A lot of the needs that have been identified are things that we really need to take care of, like leaky roofs, boilers that are very old, air conditioning, heating and other things to make sure that our schools are in the kind of condition that allows our students and teachers to do what they need to do,” schools Superintendent Parvin Ahmadi said in an interview.
She said the six-member school board waited nearly a year and a half before sending the bond measure to voters so consultants could fully evaluate the district’s future facility needs and costs.
That plan, released in February, outlines about $138.6 million in needed improvements, including $75.6 million in school construction and renovation projects, $5.6 million in technology upgrades and $38.6 million to accommodate enrollment growths at Castro Valley High School.
“Much of what we’re talking about is making sure our schools are updated the way they should be,” Ahmadi said.
“In addition to that, there really is a need to add space or classrooms for science, because it is something that we know we have a need for,” she said.
The school district is projecting a 7.6 percent increase in enrollment over the next decade from 9,321 students in 2015 to 10,020 by 2024.
Much of that growth is expected at Castro Valley’s high schools, where enrollment is projected to rise from 3,116 in 2015 to 3,392 by 2024. The district’s two middle schools, meanwhile, are expecting 206 more students during that same time.
“We do have sufficient space right now and in the next several years in our elementary schools,” Ahmadi said. “But we’re not talking about building a new school — we’re talking about our facilities are up to date and adding a few science labs here and there on site where we already have schools.”
Among the projects the bond would fund are new furnaces at five schools, new roofs at seven schools, and window system upgrades at five schools.
“We do have a plan for routine maintenance, but what we’re talking about in our facilities master plan is beyond what we can do with just a few projects that can be done each year,” Ahmadi said.
“These are major endeavors like, for example, changing heating systems is not something you can do with just a few hundred thousand dollars,” she said.
This isn’t the first time the district has reached out to Castro Valley voters.
In 2005, voters approved a $44 million bond measure that allowed the school district to pursue several projects, including the Castro Valley Center for the Arts and a 4,000-seat stadium at Castro Valley High School.
“This new bond is more spread out throughout the district and is updating aging facilities,” said district board president Jo A.S. Loss, who has served on it for the past 21 years.
“It’s routine maintenance that needs to be done on old buildings, and during the last economic downturn, deferred maintenance was not on anybody’s list, and it wasn’t required by the state,” she said.
Contact Darin Moriki at 510-293-2480 or follow him at Twitter.com/darinmoriki
