Members of the Scotts Valley Unified School District’s Board of Trustees are moving forward with a plan to float a bond measure to the city’s voters next year that they hope will result in the replacement of the aging buildings on the Scotts Valley Middle School campus.
“(The campus) needs to be rebuilt,” said Michael Shulman, a longtime board member. “Architectural engineering reports suggest that doing a little bit of remodeling here and there is not a wise investment.”
At the board’s Tuesday, Dec. 10 meeting, the trustees voted to allot $15,500 to Gene Bregman and Associates, an Aptos-based public opinion and marketing research firm, to conduct a phone survey of 250 Scotts Valley residents to determine the public’s awareness of the middle school campus’ needs, as well as gauge the level of public support a bond measure could likely expect in an election.
“The goal of the survey is to find out what the community is willing to do and what they know,” Shulman said, adding that the surveys would take 18 minutes per person.
The results of the survey, he said, are expected by the end of January and will be used to determine what specific projects the measure will fund, how much will be asked for, and whether the measure will be on the June 2014 or November 2014 ballot.
District Superintendent Penny Weaver echoed the need for revamping the middle school campus, which has buildings dating back to before the outbreak of World War II.
“The middle school is the most critical at this time,” Weaver said. “The facility is lacking in terms of being a healthy and safe facility.”
Shulman said that the middle school campus, in addition to being in need of a seismic retrofitting, had structural, electrical, fire, and plumbing deficiencies that were identified by architects and engineers hired by the district.
Weaver said that one of the biggest issues on the campus is accessibility.
“There aren’t really many aspects at all of that campus that are (ADA compliant),” she said. “That’s a huge, huge concern.”
Scotts Valley voters have rejected two previous bond measures — Measure B in 2002 and Measure Q in 2008 — that respectively called for $44.2 million and $55 million for multiple construction projects district-wide, in addition to revamping the middle school.
“Those were larger in scope than what we’re trying to do here,” Shulman said.
While no dollar amount has been attached to the cost of revamping the middle school, Shulman said that the cost of the project had been estimated to be approximately $30 million at the time Measure Q was taken for a vote in 2008.
While bond measures of this nature require a 55-percent majority vote to pass, Measure Q received 54.01 percent in June 2008.
In June 2012, Scotts Valley voters approved Measure K, which was a parcel tax designed to prevent projected layoffs of teachers and staff.
For more information on the survey, visit www.svusd.santacruz.k12.ca.us/boe/AgendaDec1013.htm
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