It’s now official. After a unanimous vote of the Scotts Valley Unified School District’s Board of Trustees on Tuesday night, a proposal for a $35 million bond measure to replace the dilapidated Scotts Valley Middle School is officially headed for voters in the June 3 election.
After garnering the approval of the board, district officials moved quickly to file the formal paperwork with the Santa Cruz County Election Department the following afternoon.
If the measure — which has not yet been assigned a name — is approved, it will raise $35 million to completely rebuild the 70-year-old SVMS campus with modern facilities and provide funding for technological upgrades in the distric and earthquake safety improvements to the Brook Knoll and Vine Hill elementary campuses.
Trustee Michael Shulman — who worked on Measure Q, the district’s unsuccessful $55 million proposal to replace the middle school in 2008 — said that he looked forward to getting back out on the campaign trail.
“I am more motivated than ever to see this through,” he said.
Shulman applauded the board’s work to draft the proposal, and said that he believed that voters would respond positively to the proposal’s focus and clarity.
“This is a smaller bond measure (than Measure Q),” Shulman said. “It’s much more focused, and there’s much more need.”
Trustee Sue Roth said that the middle school campus in its current state could even mislead those moving to the area because it does not do justice to the quality of the school’s teachers and programs.
“There is a real turn-off that occurs,” she said.
To pay for the proposed bond, homeowners within the boundaries of the Scotts Valley Unified School District — which does extend outside the Scotts Valley city limits — will see an increase in their property tax bills over a 25-year span. The rate of increase will be determined based on a property’s assessed value.
According to Shulman, the next move for the board will be to finalize the information regarding the proposal that will appear on voter information materials, as well as secure endorsements.
For more information regarding the bond measure proposal, including the preliminary text of the measure, visit www.scottsvalleyusd.org.
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