Beaumont Unified Seeking $148M In Bonds With Measure E

This November, voters in the Beaumont Unified School District will be asked whether or not to approve Measure E, a $148 million bond package that will be used to address the rapid rate of growth in the district.

“Beaumont Unified School District is one of the fastest growing school districts in California, especially in Riverside County,” Sergio San Martin, chief business official, said. “So as we continue to grow in enrollment, and we’ve actually doubled in size in the last 15 years, we need to add capacity to our classrooms.”

Over the next few years, San Martin said enrollment at the district’s only high school is projected to grow by roughly 700 students, making it harder for students to get into the necessary classes, programs, sports and activities to set them up for success in the future.

In addition, San Martin said the bond will be used to address a number of existing needs as well, including the renovation and modernization of aging facilities at campuses across the district.

“We have portable buildings that are 30 years old, 40 years old, and these temporary portable buildings really were supposed to be temporary for no more than 15 years,” he said. “They’ve outgrown their useful life, so part of this bond is to also renovate and modernize existing schools.”

Prior to heading out for bond, the district conducted polling with voters and found that there was widespread supported efforts to improve the facilities and add more classroom space, but did not want large increases to taxes.

“That’s been a positive for us, that our community knows and understands that we’re a growing community and that it is important to have adequate classroom learning environments,” San Martin said. “I think the result came back that our community didn’t want to get taxed, so they see it as an additional tax, but I think what we learned from it is that even though it is a property tax, it’s very minimal.”

When it comes to property taxes, the district is asking voters to approve a levy of up to $28 for every $100,000 in assessed value for all residential, commercial and industrial properties. San Martin said the average property owner would see an increase of approximately $140 per year.

“The positive thing, when I speak to community members that are concerned about their taxes, when I inform them that this is about $140 on average for the typical property owner for the whole year, they have a better understanding,” he said. “And they’re very supportive of what we’re trying to do with passing a bond.”

San Martin said the district also carved out nine senior citizen communities with residents aged 55 and older from this bond measure, meaning they won’t vote on the bond, but they also won’t be impacted by the property tax increase.

Voters previously approved Measure Z in 2008, which provided the district with $125 million, which the district was able to get matched dollar for dollar from the state, which allowed for the construction of three new schools and a $90 million investment into the district’s only high school.

“Today, our facilities master plan shows that if we continue to grow at this rate, and with our aging facilities, our need in the next 15 to 20 years is over a billion dollars,” San Martin said. “So that’s a big dollar amount that we don’t have the bonding capacity and we don’t have the money for it.”

San Martin said now is the right time for this bond because with the amount of potential growth on the horizon, the district needs to continue addressing its current facility needs while continuing to plan for that future growth.

“One of the big things in this bond is that it will help us not only to plan and construct two full elementary schools, perhaps an elementary/middle, but also start the securing of land, engineering and have shovel ready plans for the second high school,” he said. “It’s a big, big step to begin looking at a second high school, because we’re growing as a district.”