High schools: Boosting building funds High schools: Boosting building funds (June 23, 2004)

** Small adjustments could have major impact.

By David Boyce
Almanac Staff Writer

When November rolls around, voters living in the local high school district may be asked to approve a refinancing maneuver that could almost double the school construction bond funds available to the district.

At the Wednesday, June 23, meeting of the Sequoia Union High School District board, trustees will discuss alternatives that take advantage of rising property values and could add as much as $70 million to the $88 million voters approved as Measure G in November 2001.

The Sequoia district has "lots of needs still," Trustee Gordon Lewin told the Almanac. Enrollment is rising and is expected go on rising, the district has three charter schools that need facilities, and there are plans for new three-year high school, Mr. Lewin said. A five-year program to help academically struggling Redwood City students in the fifth through ninth grades is also being talked about.

Providing facilities for charter schools alone "could be $20 million without even blinking," said Ed LaVigne, the district's chief financial official. Carlmont and Menlo-Atherton high schools are in need of funds to pay for their performing arts centers, he added.

In two bond measures, the Sequoia district has raised $133 million since 1996. With state grants included, the district has spent $220 million on construction, Mr. LaVigne said.

Finding more money

To pay the interest and principal on the bonds, the Sequoia district levies a fee-per-$100,000-of-value on each property owner. Since the district's bill is a fixed amount every year, if the total value of property in the district rises over a year, that fee will drop. And since property values tend to rise, the fees tend to drop each year, with the extra money going to the property owners.

The proposals before the board this week could keep some or all of that excess, either by stopping the natural decrease in the fee paid each year, by slowing the rate of decrease, or by extending the length of time the fee is paid, or a combination of methods, Mr. Lewin said.

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