Livermore Residents to be Surveyed to Determine Support for a General Obligation Bond

The Livermore Valley Joint Unified School District board has agreed they want to move forward with the next step of starting a bond for facilities improvements.

Although the board hasn’t yet approved putting a bond on the ballot, they are moving toward forming a facilities committee to review what projects are needed at the different school sites.

The information item discussed at Tuesday night's meeting could lead to putting a general obligation bond before Livermore voters.

The district has contracted with Government Financial Strategies for the project. Jonathan Edwards, a consultant with GFSI, gave a presentation to the board, explaining the process and their options.

A parcel tax currently exists. It was renewed in 2008, which is why the district is reviewing the possibility of a bond.

“There are lots of facilities needs and no money to do upgrades,” said Susan Kinder, LVJUSD chief business official. “One thing we could do is power generation, like solar, to reduce utility expenses. This would indirectly help the general fund.”

Edward’s presentation to the board listed several potential bond projects, which included modernization of existing sites, facilities for academy programs (such as culinary and performing arts), technology improvements, energy conservation, generation (solar) projects, improvements at school farm and seismic retrofits.

A survey would need to be conducted to determine if voters would approve the bond. Kinder said a survey would cost the district around $25,000.

Edwards said a professional independent public opinion survey would determine whether a bond measure could be successful and the elements of a measure crucial for success. The survey would indicate the maximum tax rate for successful election and which facilities needs are a priority.

A timeline Edwards provided to the board shows the steps needed if the board votes to pursue a general obligation bond.

A survey would be conducted in August, with the results presented in October. A bond plan would be developed around November and presented to the board in December. The deadline for filing an election resolution is March 9, 2012.

Hiring professional engineers and contractors to determine facilities projects will not be not needed, Kinder said, because the district is already aware of facility projects that are needed.

“We are always looking at our facilities,” Kinder said. “We have a needs list, we just need to go through it and prioritize and update it, so [hiring professionals to review facilities] won’t really be an additional cost.”

The next step is to form a facilities advisory committee.

“We are going to have a facilities advisory committee who will look at the last facilities master plan and look at updating that to see what kinds of projects we need to have done,” Kinder said.