10-29-08 Our Acton-Agua Dulce School District has over two million dollars coming to it from the State of California to modernize both the permanent buildings at Agua Dulce Elementary and Acton Elementary schools. This eligibility was established in the Fall of 2007, based on a match from our Cal-Air contract. Our facilities experts (Facilities Planning, Inc) have told the district that two million dollars is not enough money to do a decent job to modernize both of these schools.
A modernization project brings school buildings up to current building code - including fire safety and earthquake codes. Neither the Acton nor the Agua Dulce Elementary Schools have a working fire alarm system (what! hard to believe but true, when both are in high fire zones). Both schools are in need of modern energy efficient doors and windows. Both schools are in need of extensive upgrades.
Acton Elementary was originally built in 1938; Agua Dulce in 1966! Measure CF money cannot be used to help modernize these schools; its funds can only be expended on the high school; it is the wrong solution in the wrong time.
Our board decided the high school is our school “in need” and our other schools' facilities are “good enough” (have you visited our K-8 schools lately?). This is like saying, “we could give all of our teachers a raise, but our teachers “in need” are at the high school, so let's give it ALL to them and nothing to our dedicated K-8 teachers”. Our Board President wants to use general fund money for these improvements. To me, general fund money should be used to educate our children, because I put children first. Our general fund money should go into the classroom!
At the same time our Board President has been paying back our three million dollar Cal Air loan (cost justified based on energy savings which go into the general fund and are a general fund expense) out of our deferred maintenance fund (the fund used to replace items like roofs and carpet). As a result, it is projected that over the course of this 15 year loan, there will be no deferred maintenance money left for deferred maintenance projects. This assumes that no carpet, paint, roofs, HVAC in our district will need to be replaced in that 15 year time frame.
This enables our district's general fund to grow, but when that happens, the unions will argue that they should get that money in the form of a raise. If they take the salary negotiations to binding arbitration, there is nothing the board can do to keep this money off the table. The result - no money for deferred maintenance - good job board! How many of our classrooms need paint, carpet, roofs fixed and HVAC improvement NOW? Most of them. Good job board! Yes our employees deserve a raise (don't we all), but not at the expense of our already deteriorating facilities.
Vote for CF and you are encouraging this board to continue with their bad business practices and fiscal irresponsibility. Yes, you will get a nice new large gym for the high school and some new classrooms there, but your already deteriorating K-8 facilities will be guaranteed to degrade even worse. Vote yes on CF and mark my words, you will be sending your children to school with an umbrella - not to get there, but to open up in class, to protect their puddin' heads from the leaky roofs when it rains.
Vote no on measure CF. It is just more Construction Fraud. A Board that cannot maintain their existing schools should not be trusted with taxpayer money to build new buildings. With the stock market in decline, our financial institutions on the verge of collapse, and our home equity values plummeting, now is not the time to be raising our taxes!!! Just say NO to CF.
John McCain says that now is not the time to raise anyone's taxes. Vote NO on this tax increase. VOTE NO on CF. Thanks for listening.
Your AADUSD Vice President, Ron Bird
Note: Ron was the only one of our Board members not to vote for putting CF on this November's ballot because it did not include funds to maintain the K-8 schools. With the K-8 repair funds and a $2,000,000 limit of funds to be spent on the gym, this paper would have supported CF. Good job Ron.