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Lucia Mar considering bond measure on November ballot

April 22, 2016

school busThe Lucia Mar Unified School District is considering asking voters to pass a bond measure to pay for facility upgrades. The proposal would cost property owners between $29 and $45 per $100,000 of assessed value. [Tribune]

School district officials say Lucia Mar could raise between $104 million and $170 million if the bond measure were to pass. The Lucia Mar school board will decide in June whether or not to place the initiative on the November ballot.

Superintendent Raynee Daley said funds raised from a bond initiative would go toward modernizing the district’s outdated facilities, which were built in the 50s and 60s. The district is considering using potential revenue from the bond to replace modular classrooms with permanent structures.

District officials may also spend the funds on materials and technology for science labs and new desks and chairs that can easily move around classrooms. Bond revenue could likewise go toward replacing windows that are not energy efficient, repaving asphalt in playgrounds and updating plumbing.

Lucia Mar considered placing a bond measure on the 2014 ballot but tabled the plan. That year, three school districts in the county — Atascadero, Cuesta College and San Luis Coastal — placed bond measures on the ballot. All three of the initiatives passed.


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Our State STILL has one of the worst EDUCATION systems in the US, yet the MOST EXPENSIVE! We don’t need to fix our facilities, we need to fix our STUDENTS!


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Read Robert Weissberg’s “Bad Students, Not Bad Schools” book.


California has one of the worst school systems in the state because we have bad students.


It is that simple.


Did California really expect that importing millions of third world immigrants would not degrade its education system?


The problem is the students, not the teachers. School officials must accept this reality rather than aiming for pipe dreams like Universal STEM education where everyone is trained to be a Computer Scientist. That is unrealistic.


Given California’s demographics, bring back vocational school for most students and make college prep high schools the domain of only the gifted top 10 percent of students.


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Pshah, talk about pipe dreams… vocational school? College prep only for those who are gifted? They will shut you down faster than you can say “racist pig” – which is what they’ll call anyone who mentions “gifted” (because they themselves are racist and automatically connect “gifted” with “white” or “asian”).


Sure, I’d love to have a complete break-down and rebuild of the K-graduate schools, but there are too many people, scamming too many others for too much money for any change to ever really occur.


It is unfortunate.


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Change in the education system can happen.


You are right that public education is full of entrenched ideological bureaucrats who only have their jobs because they follow the latest magic bullet fad and don’t care about what is good for kids.


The Soviet Union operated on similar lines to American public education, with apparatchiks holding jobs only for reasons of ideological purity and loyalty. Like school administrators, apparatchiks were shifted around and promoted to positions for which they had no competence to hold.


Eventually the Soviet bureaucracy became untenable and the whole system came crashing down. Something similar will happen soon with public education.


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Lucia Mar is again considering a new bond, and yet they haven’t even fully evaluated and defined a need or requirement. The District appears to be looking to fund short needs with long term funds.


The easy answer is to say no unless there is a demonstrated long term need.


“The district is considering using potential revenue from the bond to replace modular classrooms with permanent structures.” How old are the modular units, how many are there, when were they placed onsite and at which locations?


The district, it appears, may choose without voter approval to use the funds for short term needs. “District officials may also spend the funds on materials and technology for science labs and new desks and chairs that can easily move around classrooms. Bond revenue could likewise go toward replacing windows that are not energy efficient, repaving asphalt in playgrounds and updating plumbing.” As we all know “technology” is out of date within 3 years, and chairs, desks, etc.within 10 years.


So, why would we fund a 20 or 30 year bond for short term needs?


The District needs to be completely transparent and clearly delineate with detailed allocation of funds, including a realistic timeline for the stated need. There should be a clear requirement that if the bond is approved it may not be extended or expanded, and if refinanced only to reduce the payments and term. There should also be a bond oversight committee made up of voters within the District to assure compliance.


Based on the suggestions outlined thus fair, I’ll take the easy way out.


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Unless i am missing something, What the article is describing is not a bond measure, but an increase in property tax.


A bond is where the entity borrows money from an investor and pays it back with interest, not a special assessment to raise taxes.


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Yes, but said principle and interest will be paid from property tax increases.


Property tax increases are a special assessment to raise taxes. The most heinous and insidious, unfair kind, too. Socialists should love it (they usually don’t own property, and love when others pay).


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I see. Incidious is right. That’s like me borrowing money and forcing you pay it back with interest or I confiscate your home.


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Only homeowners should be able to vote for this bond measure. You should have to have some skin in the game……


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You will never own your house! This is just the county raising our rent.. Vote hell no! Why should only Property owners support our failing schools


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The reason they get to do this is that people who do not pay much (if anything) in taxes get to vote on how to spend the money they do not have to provide.


“Back in the day” (somewhere, sometime) it was only a property owner who could cast a vote – makes sense, if you have property, you paid taxes, if you paid taxes, you got a say in how the taxes were spent.


Flash forward to today, and all you need to do is convince people how much of a “hero” they will be by allowing this shell game to continue to enrich an ever-growing oligarchy. In the end, most people are really too ignorant and lazy to prevent this, and the government slugs take advantage of this (ironically, this is for “education”) to continue to pull the wool over their eyes.


Folks, there are not enough of us anymore. Cake & Circus all around.


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Amen Brutha.


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I know, I known, the country was perfect back when only white male property owners could vote and you could also own slaves and restrictive covenants could keep all those Jews, foreigners and other undesirables from living in your neighborhood. Yes, those were your imaginary glory days and they’re never coming back.


Anyway, my tenants pay for my property taxes and other expenses when they pay me their rent. When my taxes and expenses go up, they pay because I increase their rent. Heck, I increase their rent even when my expenses don’t increase.


Since my tenants really pay my taxes, why shouldn’t they get to vote on things like this? They’re really just voting to increase their own rent, you know.


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why does every argument go back to race? Property owners are people with skin in the game. Approximately 50% of our citizens pay no federal tax and politicians cater to them to continue to vote themselves further largesse.


As a result the safety net is now a hammock made up of 19 trillion dollar bills and food stamps.


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Because when one is inherently a racist, that is what they do. They tell you themselves what they really are.


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No problem. I will just take the funds out of my Swiss bank account to pay for all the tax increases. Pothole repairs in south county. Sewer repairs. Now this crap. Oh, did you all know that Lucia Mar charges parents for bus service? Yep, $30 a month per kid plus $10 for a photo ID bus pass. So, that is $280 a year. (Free meal kids get to ride for free)


Yeah, it’s ok though, apparently the word on the street is that I’m rich. Maybe it is my sweet 15 year old “vintage” ride, or my 1000 square foot home (tiny is in!)


They keep taxing South County residents and we will all be living in the Sand Dunes and Grover Beach PD will have to run us off too!!


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SLCUSD is $180 twice a year for a bus that my kids need to walk at least 15 minutes to get to the dropoff/pickup point, so $360/year – no ID/pass though, so we dodged that extra $10… for now.


And since it’s in SLO, I see a few parents DRIVE their kids to the bus stop. I am one of them… :(


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See, my concern is that we “fee payers” are often paying the costs repeatedly. So, what is the bus riding fee paying for? Is it for the maintenance and gas of the buses? We aren’t supposed to paying for the salaries of bus drivers too, are we? Salaries are supposed to come out of education funding I thought. So, does does maintenance of the buses NOT include their “bus barn?”


For me, I think I need to know what it is I am paying for.


More and more, I have begun to scrutinize all my bills. The things we pay for in all the “little fees” that are added to our every day bills each month. We pay for so much as it is, and when THAT isn’t enough, they tax us AGAIN. And when THAT isn’t enough, they tax our property, then raise the sales tax.


I think it is Calcoastnews time to ask everyone to do a “financial lesson” on how many hidden taxes citizens really do pay. It will piss you off. It does me.


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And now the south county sanitation district wants to put your sewer bill on the tax roll also.


Enough is Enough you can’t get blood out of a turnip!


Why does nobody in gov’t or schools put money aside for repairs?


I don’t have kids and have paid into schools forever, when do I get to Opt out of this madness.


It would be cheaper to just school them in modular units and when they wear out replace them. The park and rec dept have been working out of a modular unit for over 20 years now.


These kids aren’t learning much in school these days yet they keep up the ELS classes, teachers are tenured and don’t fear for their jobs, teachers strike when they don’t feel they are getting paid enough, I could go on and on.


I think those of you with kids ought to pay more in taxes because it is your kid using the buildings ect not me.


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Some people live in trailers here every day. Grover Beach and Oceano LOVE us some trailer parks. If they are good enough for tax payers, why not the schools?


And for the record dogeatdog, there is a lot of “old people shit” those of us with kids pay for that I really don’t want to pay for. “Old folks” congregating buildings like Moose lodging and all those places people play bingo. Tax dollars keep those going strong. Those annual cost of living increases are paid for by people like ME, the younger tax payer. We are paying for oxygen for smokers, motorized hover rounds, bionic hips and knees. I mean, if “I” am not using or benefitting, then why should *I* pay for it??? Why should *I” the taxpayer pay for annual COLAs for social security recipients if *I* don’t get a raise?


I understand your lack of desire to pay more taxes. Your logic, however, is something you might want to re-think. My generation will probably never benefit from social security and/or Medicare, and yet we are forced to continue to pay in to that system. Just ponder that for a moment……


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Just take a look at Atascadero. The bond was voted in for improvements and they were just told that part of the technology upgrade was to purchase computers for the students.

Were is it going to stop? SLOCOG wants to add another 1/2 cent sales tax so they can build bike paths and hiking trails, The state is trying to figure out how to increase your taxes because people are buying fuel efficient cars. We cut back on our water use so we need to have an increase with our water rates.

It seems like we the taxpayer are doing a very good job on our part but the politicians and school administrators want us to subsidize them for their inefficiencies and to support their out of line salaries and benefit packages.


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