Santa Maria-Bonita School District’s Measure K seeks $77 million for facilities | Local news

With existing campuses serving more students than planned and Santa Maria continuing to grow, Santa Barbara County’s largest school district has asked voters to approve a new bond measure.

The Nov. 5 ballot includes the Santa Maria-Bonita School District’s Measure K, a $77 million bond to replace outdated portable buildings with modern permanent classrooms, build additional classrooms/schools to reduce overcrowding, fix leaking roofs and fix bad plumbing, and more.

“We have a growing population here in the city of Santa Maria – new developments that are online or coming online – and we don’t have enough classrooms to meet the state’s requirements for class size, for all-day transitional kindergarten and kindergarten,” said Matt Beecher, deputy superintendent of business services for the district.

“The way to truly provide the learning environments our students deserve is to obtain that critical funding from a school bond that we can then invest in new facilities.”

Before voting to place the bond measure on the ballot, county officials heard from a consultant and implemented a facilities master plan.

The goal concerns the construction of a new secondary school and a new primary school.

District leaders say many of the 21 campuses were built for 600 students but have 1,000.

The district has 170 portable classrooms it needs to use to meet the needs of its student population, Beecher said.

Of the 21 campuses, about three have fewer than 600 students, including Arellanes Elementary and Bonita Elementary schools.

Even with additional classrooms, campuses with hundreds of students still must accommodate increased enrollment in cafeterias, libraries, parking lots and more.

“All that infrastructure is being strained by the need for us to create additional facilities for our growing population,” Beecher said.

If approved, the bond measure would charge $30 annually per $100,000 of assessed property value. That means properties with an assessed value of $300,000 would pay $90 more per year in property taxes.

The measure would need more than 55% approval from voters to pass.

Measure K has received support from several factions led by the K Is For Our Kids-Yes on K committee with the website including supporters and information.

The Santa Maria Elementary Education Association board approved Measure K, noting that the funds will not go toward salaries or pensions and calling it “an investment in our community.”

Similarly, the Santa Maria Valley Chamber of Commerce also urged support for Measure K, citing studies showing that overcrowded schools “make it more difficult to respond to emergencies, increase health risks and increase the likelihood of conflict at school enlarged.”

Although Measure K has drawn backlash from opposition on social media, there appears to be no organized effort against it.

The district’s last bond, the $45 million Measure T of 2016, passed with 62% of the vote.

Reflecting the city’s growth, Santa Maria-Bonita is the only district in Santa Barbara County to build new schools in the past decade, adding Jimenez Elementary and Libbon Elementary.

However, the Guadalupe Union School District has its first new campus in decades currently under construction.

Santa Maria-Bonita, which includes most of the city limits and some unincorporated areas such as Tanglewood, has 17,400 students from transitional kindergarten through eighth grade.

In addition to Santa Maria-Bonita’s Measure K, voters will also see Measure J, a $194 million facilities bond, as the Santa Maria Joint Union High School District looks to alleviate overcrowding at its three expanded high school campuses.

Beecher said he doesn’t view the two bond measures as competing with each other because they each work to house a growing student population as the city adds new housing.

“In my eyes, this is not a competition,” Bleacher said. “This works together to ensure the city of Santa Maria can provide the education our students and our community deserve.”