Despite having authorization to issue another $16 million in bonds for Measure SA, the William S. Hart Union High School District governing board chose Wednesday to close the measure and dissolve the citizens’ oversight committee.
All other funds associated with the measure were expended as of June 2020 and all listed projects have been completed, according to the committee’s 2022 annual report.
According to Ralph Peschek, assistant superintendent of business services, the district would not be able to access the $16 million until 2038 based on the current assessed home values growing at a 5% rate. He added that assessments have risen by about 5.75% on average from 1994 to 2022.
The $300 million Measure SA was approved by voters in 2008 under the guidelines of Proposition 39, which only allows for a tax of $30 per $100,000 of a property’s assessed value. The last bond issuance was for $168.3 million in 2013.
“The assessed value of the properties here within our community wouldn’t support us issuing that last $16 million in bonds, and it’s been sitting there ever since,” Peschek said.
Should the district project a more aggressive assessment growth rate at 8%, Peschek said the district would still have to wait until 2035 to access the funds.
Board member Joe Messina said it makes sense to simply close out the measure as the $16 million that is available today would not be the same as it would be in 2035 or 2038 due to inflation.
“The value of this money, you’re absolutely correct, will continue to shrink over the next decade,” Peschek added.
Board member Bob Jensen said he was wrestling with the idea of holding onto the money in case there’s greater availability down the road.
Peschek responded by saying, in his opinion and according to what the district’s legal counsel and independent financial advisors told him, it would not make sense to do so.
“If you’re asking my opinion, Mr. Jensen,” Peschek said, “I think that you would be better served developing a new list of priorities and a clean set of expenditures needed to support that … One of the challenges, also, is there’s no work for your oversight committee right now, and won’t be for the next decade. There’s no money, there’s no projects. There’s nothing. And as long as this authority for the next decade-plus is sitting there, you will struggle to find six community members who want to sit on a committee that does nothing, with no money and no projects, and that is a legal requirement to have those meetings on an annual basis, and that’s another consideration as well.”
The procurement of a site for a high school in the Castaic area, and the eventual construction of Castaic High School, were listed as top priorities for Measure SA funds.
That project, which was completed and led to the first students being welcomed on campus in Castaic on Aug. 13, 2019, cost $126.2 million and included a 450-seat performing arts center, specialized classrooms for career pathways programs and approximately 250,000 square feet of school and classroom space, according to previous reporting in The Signal.
Other projects completed using those funds include: a two-story classroom building at Hart High; the construction of auditoriums at Canyon and Saugus high schools; and safety and security upgrades at school sites throughout the district.
Measure SA followed Measure V, a $158 million bond measure approved by voters in 2001 that funded the construction of both West Ranch and Golden Valley high schools along with Rio Norte and Rancho Pico junior high schools.
