Perris ESD Seeking $38M In Bonds With Measure H

This November, voters in the Perris Elementary School District will be asked whether or not to approve Measure H, a $38 million bond package that will be used to improve campus safety and modernize aging facilities.

“We are looking at the moment at enrollment, there is a potential for new housing development,” Francine Story, chief business official, said. “So this would help support any new capacity on our school campuses to accommodate any new families moving into our areas.”

Story said improvements include modernizing classrooms, upgrading older schools, adding more facilities for science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics (STEAM) education.

Prior to heading out for bond, the district conducted polling with voters that found most community members felt favorably about the bond, though some without children in the district were concerned about increased property taxes.

“It’s obviously gonna be more receptive to our families, because they’re on our campuses all the time,” Story said. “But we’re gonna work on getting it out to the community that, you know, it just helps our community in general.”

Voters previously approved Measure C in 2014, which provided the district with $40 million, and Measure S in 2006, which provided the district with $25 million in bonds.

“There’s two existing bonds currently with the district, and the oldest one is almost through its entire bond capacity,” Story said. “And that would leave us with one existing bond for our district, and the needs are always there.”

Story said that, especially in an elementary school district which doesn’t have the same bonding capacity as a unified school district, it’s important to be strategic in making sure that the availability for a bond issuance is there when the district needs it in order to get the most value out of the bond in terms of state matching funds and interest rates.

When it comes to property taxes, the district is asking voters to approve a levy of up to $30 for every $100,000 in assessed value for all residential, commercial and industrial properties, which means that the annual cost would be roughly $90 for a home with an assessed value of $300,000.

“We’re putting it back into our families, our community, our schools,” Story said. “It may not directly support your kids, who are now adults, but whether it’s your grandkids or the nieces and the nephews, Perris is a very small community where it really does affect everybody.”

She said now is the right time for this bond because Superintendent Bruce Bivins is in his second year and has some really innovative ideas for how to move the district forward.

“We had already started moving in the direction of wanting to improve our campuses as much as we could,” Story said. “But now, we really want to be able to support that and really give an exciting environment and meet the needs of our staff, our students and our community.”