Passage of $220M Bond Measure Isn't Slam-Dunk

The notion that property owners in Cupertino will do anything to support its schools because doing so in turn helps keep their property values up will be reflected in Tuesday’s vote. But some in the district say it’s not a given that Measure H—the $220 bond measure—will pass.

“I voted ‘no’,” said Dick Nelson, a senior who has lived in Cupertino since 1984. “I like schools; schools are good. I don’t like debt.”

Charlie Wan has a number of objections to the measure including the amount of the bond and how it will be spent.

“The larger issue here is related with ever increasing taxation in the name of education,” Wan said. “While we are paying property taxes every year based on property value, government organizations at all levels: school district, community college, city, county, state, are all proposing tax increases use the perfect cause: our kid's education.”

Calling it a proactive move the district says the money is needed for a variety of things, most of which are things that will need to be addressed in the coming years in order to keep the buildings in safe and operating condition and prepare for increasing enrollment.

For example, district spokesman Jeremy Nishihara said the fire alarm systems at some schools are aging. They are in safe and working order, but because they are aging to keep them maintained replacement parts are harder to come by and costly. The district is growing, too, so as additional classrooms are added with fire alarms, that burdens systems that were first installed several years ago.

While there is no immediate danger the district is asking for the money now to plan for the future so it's not put in a precarious situation. If the bond measure doesn't pass, money will be diverted from other areas of the district's budget in order to keep the schools safe for students.

But to voters such as Wan, that kind of planning should have been done all along and he believes property owners are paying enough already. And some seniors who have lived in the area for years say they've already made their investment in the schools and should at the very least be exempt.

“In this coming November we are facing another tax increase measure again from the state, part of the reason is to 'increase k-12 education spending'. We all know the ridiculous fact that California spent less on education than on prison. The question is, should we tax more to spend more on education to match prison spending? Or should we cut prison costs to spent more on education?” Wan asked.

A group of residents posed much the same question in an email to Patch.

“The right thing is for the district board members to fight with government to prevent them from cutting education budget, not to keep adding more property tax on us. We paid a plenty of tax already and cannot afford any more,” they wrote.

For folks on a fixed income such as the population of retired seniors in the community, an additional tax is a burden and will be reviewed with a critical eye, some said.

“When you’re dealing with seniors ‘no’ comes real easy,” said Joyce Paul, a Cupertino voter on a fixed income who as of Thursday had not made up her mind which way she would vote.

“I’m willing to do more investigation in it,” she said.

One of Paul’s concerns with the measure is whether it is actually necessary. She pointed to two school districts in the Los Angeles area where her daughter works as a teacher. The school her daughter works at regularly scores as one of the top schools in the nation yet operates on a tiny budget. A nearby school in a wealthier area with a healthy budget can’t compete with the success of the lower-budgeted school.

That gives her reason to pause, she said.

It was Nelson’s train of thought as well. In his mind, school can be taught in a field or a parking lot and if the teacher is good, students will learn. He’d rather see money invested in teachers’ salaries, he said. The relationship between teacher and student is where success is realized.

Legally, the bond measure cannot pay for salaries, Nishihara said.

Wan and others said they feel the district is being vague about how they came up with the $220 million figure and exactly where it will be spent.

It’s a variety of things, Nishihara said and it won’t be spent equally among all the schools. The figure was arrived at through a needs assessment of each school and the district as a whole.

The district knows already that the number of 6th graders moving on to middle school in just three years will put the district in a situation of not enough classroom space. And it’s not just that group of students, Nishihara said, the current kindergarten group is big, too.

The growing number of students possibly burdening an already bulging district is what has some concerned also about new apartment units being added at developments such as Biltmore on Blaney Avenue and Stevens Creek Boulevard.

In addition to basic repairs, maintenance and adding classrooms the money from this measure will be used to bring the infrastructure of the district’s technology up-to-date so that the teachers can be armed with a 21st Century learning base.

Money for these expenditures should be diverted from things such as sports fields, playgrounds and parks, some argue.

Nelson and Wan both question the need for putting in so much money into new anything unnecessary and believe simple repairs would be sufficient.

Others in the community don’t care how much money it costs, they want to spend whatever it takes to keep the schools at their current level of prestige.

“A lot of our country’s problems can be solved by more education. I will do anything to help the schools,” said Darrell Nelson, who said both he and his wife already voted for Measure H.

And Judy Colloton was in step with him.

“The better the schools are, the better my property value,” she said.