By Emily Rasmussen
The Capistrano Unified School District board of trustees at its meeting on Feb. 28 discussed a potential $100 million school facilities improvement bond (SFID) to go toward upgrades to San Clemente schools.
San Clemente High School Principal Chris Carter presented some items to the board which would go toward the high school. Some improvements included a $15 million “Ole Hanson” sports complex, a $10 million pool and bleachers, a $16 million performing arts center and a $16 million library and student services building.
“These are all critical components of what you would expect if you were to build a new high school,” trustee Patricia Holloway said. “These are the things that any new high school in the state would have—so I think we need to go out into the community, find out what each school wants, come back and see what it costs and what assessments support that. Especially for the high school because every student will end up in the high school.”
The bond—a maximum tax levy of $29 per $100,000 assessed value—would apply to the San Clemente High School boundary (essentially most of San Clemente), with the exception of Talega. A facility conditions assessment estimated the total cost of facilities needed across the schools within the San Clemente family of schools are $70.9 million for just existing needs, a CUSD report said.
Schools included in the bond would be every San Clemente school except Vista Del Mar Elementary School. The board also discussed including $12.8 million in existing needs for Palisades Elementary School, in Capistrano Beach, into the bond.
An initial proposal to the board suggested that the bond could be placed onto the November 2018 general election ballot but chose to wait and moving forward will discuss a 2020 bond, to have more time to gather public feedback.
In addition to the bond, the board discussed allocating funds to go toward polling and survey research to get a potential scope of a local bond measure. Also, the surveying would take a look at the potential support for a bond measure.
Holloway supported the idea to engage with the community to see what they want because they could want more, she said.
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