Woodside School board puts bond measure on ballot Woodside School board puts bond measure on ballot (June 22, 2005)

** The $12 million measure would pay to replace portable classrooms.

By David Boyce

Almanac Staff Writer

The days may be numbered for Woodside Elementary School's portable classrooms, with their leaking roofs and worn exteriors that clash with new classrooms recently built on the campus.

At its June 15 meeting, the five-member governing board of the Woodside School District unanimously approved a resolution to put a $12 million school construction bond on the ballot in November.

If the measure is approved by voters, the district would build 14 new permanent classrooms, a new band room, a computer lab, a new administration building and a community room. Also planned are a full-size soccer field, a running track and a playground for kids in grades 3 through 8.

To save on design fees, the drawings and blueprints used for the six classrooms completed in 2002 would be used again for the new classrooms.

To address morning and afternoon traffic congestion, the plan would add drop-off zones near the administration and kindergarten areas and create a school bus zone at the far end of the campus, near Sellman Auditorium.

At the school board meeting, financial consultant Anthony R. Hsieh of the firm Piper Jaffray said the bond would tax homeowners $22.25 a year for each $100,000 of assessed value for 25 years; then the tax rate would gradually drop over the next 15 years, with a final rate of $9.45.

The initial rate is below $23 because that figure was found to be acceptable in a community poll recently commissioned by the district. The 40-year period of the bond is tailored to keep the rate below $23, said Mr. Hsieh.

To pass, the measure needs the approval of 55 percent of the voters instead of the usual two-thirds majority required for the passage of tax measures.

State Proposition 39, passed in 2001, allows school districts to opt for the lower majority in exchange for extra scrutiny over the use of the money, including adherence to a published list of projects, close monitoring of spending by a panel of community members, and an obligation to provide facilities for charter schools, if asked.

Before approving the bond resolution, school board members held two community meetings and met with individuals privately, said board president Bettina Pike.

The community supports the proposed plans, said Ms. Pike. "We learned that the most important factor is to maintain the small-town atmosphere of Woodside," she told the Almanac.

The community also responded positively to plans to bring the campus into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, said Ms. Pike.

The new soccer field would recapture the recreational use of space now occupied by the portable buildings, she added. The community would have access to the field as well as to a new meeting room, district officials have said.

The school board has until August 17 to amend or withdraw the measure.
Debt burden

In the 2004-05 fiscal year, property in the Woodside School District was valued at $1.67 billion, which corresponds to a district borrowing capacity set by the state at $21 million, said assistant superintendent Tim Hanretty in an interview.

That borrowing capacity rises and falls as the total assessed value of properties in the district rises and falls, he said. The school construction bond approved by district voters in 1999 used $5 million of that capacity.

The tax rate for the current measure would be added to the ongoing tax rate for the 1999 bond measure, which for 2004-05 is $20.23 per $100,000 of assessed value, said Mr. Hanretty. That bond financed the construction of six new middle-school classrooms, a new gym -- helped along with $7.5 million in private donations -- and the conversion of Sellman Auditorium into a multi-use performing arts center.

The 1999 measure received the approval of 74 percent of the voters, well over the two-thirds majority needed for bond measures prior to Proposition 39.

A year earlier, a $10.2 million bond had failed with a 54 percent majority. Voters complained then that the proposed buildings were too large and not in character with the school's rural setting.

The buildings proposed in the current measure would be one-story structures.

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