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Within the town of Woodside, Measure E is an initiative that would authorize a $36 million bond measure to fund repairs to Woodside Elementary School, including classroom repairs and a creek stabilization project. Voters have the choice to support this measure on the March 5 ballot.
The current state of the school is not up to code, according to school officials. With state requirements to expand transitional kindergarten (TK), the school lacks adequate classrooms to accommodate the enrollment of students, according to the district.
Superintendent Steve Frank and school board President Jenny Hayden say the funds would be used to stabilize a creek at the back of campus that has eroded, fix leaking roofs, update fire systems and HVAC units, improve classrooms, install solar panels and power backups for emergencies and add security cameras for safety.
“It’s hard to attract good teachers without good facilities and teachers have the strongest impact on students,” said Hayden. “Excellent facilities go hand in hand with excellent education.”
Hayden explained that even with the growth of expenses, the school board has been able to increase their budget from $10 million to $15 million by increasing their reserve by 16% since she joined in 2019.
Despite effective budgeting techniques, the public school budget is not enough for long-term future planning to repair damages, they said. As the school’s soccer field continues to fall away due to the creek erosion and 20- to 30-year-old roofs continue to leak, the district says the bond measure is the only thing that can cover these repair costs.
“Currently we have a budget of $400,000 a year to repair these facilities for basic repairs, but we’re running out,” said Frank.
The creek stabilization is estimated to cost $3 million and the remaining budget would be allocated towards building repairs, improvements and replacement of TK and kindergarten classrooms.
“This is a community school. Generations of families have sent their kids here,” said Frank. “It’s a gathering place and everyone in the community uses our facilities. It’s a part of the hometown experience.”
“Communities that invest in their school have shown to improve their property value,” Hayden added.
Mark Hinkle, president of the Silicon Valley Taxpayer Association, writes in his rebuttal against Measure E that the district is asking for money to fund recurring maintenance expenses that should have been planned for in its annual budget.
“If you reward failure, you just get more failure,” said Hinkle, as he had expected test scores from students at Woodside Elementary to be improving. He points out that in the 2017-18 school year 12.92% of students did not meet school standards and 17.58% did not meet school standards in 2021-22.
Frank responded that despite these statistics, California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) scores for Woodside Elementary School are among the best in the state.
“For the 2022-23 school year, the English-Language Arts scores saw 82.4% of our students meeting or exceeding state standards, and the math scores saw 79.2% of our students meeting or exceeding state standards,” wrote Frank in an email to The Almanac. “These numbers are well above the state averages and are a big reason why WES (Woodside Elementary School District) is ranked as the top elementary and middle school in San Mateo County.”
With the measure asking for $36 million, Hinkle explains that by the time the bond measure is paid off, high interest rates will amount to double the amount of the initial bond.
“Bond measures are like home mortgages. It’s not just $36 million, it’s going to be $72 million,” said Hinkle. “For the kids who are graduating, their grandkids could be paying for that bond and they wouldn’t benefit from that.”
Find out more about the measure at smcacre.gov/elections.