While a final decision is expected next June, the Ceres Unified School District Board of Trustees is gearing up to place a bond measure on the November 2024 ballot next year to help pay for repairs and updates to school campuses.
A mailer has been sent to Ceres households which outlines why the district is proposing the measure, which, if passed, would increase the tax assessment on properties within CUSD boundaries. The district estimates the annual assessment at $60 per $100,000 of assessed value. Assessed valuation is often lower than market value. Thus a home with an average assessed value of $200,000 would pay $120 per year; a valuation of $300,000 would bring about a $180 annual assessment.
In an informational flyer to voters, CUSD Supt. Denise Wickham said: “While CUSD students are achieving at high levels, our school facilities are aging and in need of repair. Recently, CUSD partnered with architects and school construction experts to assess the condition of classrooms and science labs in the district, identify specific needed facility repairs and upgrades and to prioritize improvements based on urgency and importance.”
A master plan for facilities identifies over $165 million needed for repairs and improvements at every school site. Wickham said the state does not provide “complete or reliable funding for facilities,” and she asserts “schools cannot maintain safe learning environments that meet current instructional standards without a local funding source. She said the “identified upgrades and repairs would help prepare students for college and the workforce and ensure that all CUSD students have access to safe and modern classrooms, labs and educational facilities equal to what other students in Stanislaus County already have.”
The master plan runs the gambit at each site, with the largest being $40 million for Ceres High School, including a new $10 million classroom wing to replace aging portables dating back to the 1980s as well as stadium improvements and modernizing classrooms. Another $6 million is calculated for Ceres High stadium improvements.
New classroom wings are also needed at a number of other campuses, including Carroll Fowler, Caswell, Don Pedro, Sam Vaughn, Virginia Parks, Westport elementary schools and Blaker Kinser and Mae Hensley junior high schools. New additions of offices and libraries are also on the list for the newer campuses of Patricia Kay Beaver, Hidahl and Berryhill campuses.
At a joint meeting of the Ceres City Council and CUSD Board of Trustees, Dr. Wickham talked about the likely bond measure.
“You might think, oh, all our schools are new and they’re shiny and wonderful,” Wickham told the group. “We have schools in our district that are over 30 years old that haven’t received any modernization. We have wings of portables that are wearing out.”
If a bond election is ordered, it would only be successful with a 55 percent plus one vote majority.
In the November 2022 election, 71 school bond measures in California succeeded while 28 failed. One that succeeded in Stanislaus County was Patterson’s Measure E which enacted an assessment of $57 per $100,000 of assessed valuation. The $74 million bond measure passed with a 60.3 percent voter majority.
In the same election, Waterford Unified School District attempted to pass a $5.57 million bond with an assessment of $30 per $100,000 of assessed value but it failed to garner the 55 percent majority needed, falling short by one percent.
To learn more about steps CUSD is taking to address necessary facilities improvements, visit www.ceres.k12.ca.us/page/facilities-upgrades
