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Important Info...
AHSCC Update/Review on the June 12th (just past) GUHSD Governing Board Meeting... Click Here
FOLLOW-UP
To all the AHSCC… I attended the Citizens Bond Oversight Committee meeting last night (June 25th). My main goal in attending was to see if the presentations to the CBOC on the new bond Feasibility, or Demographics Studies had been changed or updated since the June 12th GUHSD Board initial rollout… they had not been changed or updated.
A GUHSD staff member who I was not familiar with presented the Demographics info, and Scott Patterson, Asst. Superintendent & Business Mgr., presented the Feasibility study information… Superintendent Collins was not in attendance.
CBOC Member Fred Lear queried (re: Demographics) whether the SANDAG population data/numbers had been utilized or how heavy a roll did SANDAG play in the study. The answer somewhat surprised me…. Maybe I’d missed this at the June 12th meeting… the answer was that SANDAG played a very small role.
It was said that Davis Demographics & Planning Inc. (Study Consultant) had asked SANDAG to provide them a detailed data run & report on which they would include in their study, however, it wasn’t provided in a time for their use, so they went ahead and the study was based on three years of GUHSD historical enrollment records for trend projections, plus district birth data.
It appears to me that if this was the case and SANDAG wasn’t utilized, then the “Davis” study may not be taking into consideration enough of the credible and available data to be reliable without further consideration of the available but not included data, especially the SANDAG data. At any rate Alpine student populations are pretty stable while the rest of the District loses over 3000 students in the next several years, per the “Davis” study.
A question to Scott Patterson posed again by CBOC member Fred Lear was about… where do you, the GUHSD, go with this (Feasibility & Demographics) information, what are your conclusions? Patterson answered indicating that the Superintendent plans to discuss both studies with the full GUHSD Board on July 10th, and will recommend a new follow-on bond be placed on the November ballot. Mr. Lear then asked what about the 12th high school for Alpine?Patterson said that the Superintendent (Collins) will recommend that an 800 student high school be built for Alpine and that the Alpine HS will be a topic to be discussed in detail on July 10th. The new bond’s ballot language will be a large part of the July 10th Board meeting and new bond workshop. A vote on the new bond will take place on July 31st.
Patterson also said the early new bond projections for determining its dollar amount was based on 6% growth rate in the tax base and the bond advisors now feel that number to be too high. The new bond was going to be recommended to be $445 Mil total, and that will likely be lowered to around $415 Mil, based on a 5% tax growth. This was indicated by the bond experts to GUHSD.
Prop H is estimated to be about $140 Mil short on completing all that the Prop H initiative listed as original projects.
The July 10th and 31st GUHSD meetings look to be very important. If you’ve never or for whatever reason, disengaged your activism/advocacy in this endeavor, now is the time to engage once again.
Alpine high school’s fate will be determined in the month of July at these two meetings. If a new bond gets approved by the GUHSD board (4 of 5 yes votes needed) to be on the November ballot, the Feasibility study indicates it should easily pass.
Sincerely,
Bill Weaver, AHSCC Chair
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