San Fran schools want to pass a “$790 million” bond. That is a lie. The full cost of the bond is $1.58 BILLION, when you include interest. This is a scam. Would you buy a $790 million property—and then find out the real cost was $1.58 billion? That is what they are doing.
Then they set you up for 2026, for another bond, saying this is not enough. If it is not enough, tell the truth. How much IS enough?
The worse news is that half of downtown San Fran is vacant. Most of the commercial buildings have lost more than half their value. Add this massive tax onto the property owners and the values goes down, rents go up and businesses close down.
Did I mention that San Fran has declining enrollment and should close schools? Maybe a total reform of th system before we payoff unions and greedy corporations?
SFUSD says $790M bond not enough to fix all aging facilities
By Allyson Aleksey, SF Examiner, 5/6/24 https://www.sfexaminer.com/news/education/record-setting-sfusd-bond-could-head-to-november-2024-ballot/article_109cda68-0bfa-11ef-a0f7-27061bf4bfc4.html
San Francisco Unified School District officials admit the $790 million bond measure being prepared for placement on the Nov. 5 ballot still isn’t enough money to fix the district’s aging facilities.
The district initially planned a $1 billion school bond for the March ballot, but board of education commissioners backtracked, noting that previous bonds’ shortcomings would have to be addressed before proposing the largest public-school bond in The City’s history.
Despite the delay, commissioners agree that these funds are sorely needed to repair district property amid declining enrollment and planned school closures.
“SFUSD’s commitment to educational excellence must be supported by well-functioning schools,” Board of Education President Lainie Motamedi said in a statement. “SFUSD’s bond program is absolutely essential to fund the critical improvements needed to provide quality education and safe learning environments.”
The board adopted a facilities master plan last year dictating where 2024 bond funds will be directed. It addresses the need for mechanical, electrical, plumbing and air-ventilation systems in all schools. The plan also identifies Rooftop Elementary and Middle School’s Mayeda campus, Mission High School, Balboa High School, Everett Middle School and George Moscone Elementary School — all projects deferred from a 2016 bond — as needing improvements the most.
District officials claimed the bond measure will not raise tax rates.
“The bond program is a responsible steward of public funds and remains committed to transforming the state of our school facilities without increasing taxes,” Motamedi said.
The bond will need 55% of voters’ support to pass. Superintendent Matt Wayne said in a statement that the proposal “will allow (the district) to invest in the places that need it most and need it now.”
But district officials said that $790 million, which would be the district’s largest bond to date, is still not enough. SFUSD Executive Director of Capital Planning Karen Sullivan said that $6 billion is needed to repair all schools, and Wayne noted at an April board meeting that the district has “way more needs than we’ll address in one bond.”
The district is not proposing a larger bond because district leaders “need to demonstrate to the community (their) ability to manage resources well,” Wayne said.
“The bond program has been managed very well, but the confidence in the district’s ability is one we need to restore,” he said.
Parents have vocally criticized the district for delaying needed improvements after voters passed a $744 million bond to fund repairs in 2016.
In recent years, students at Buena Vista Horace Mann have dealt with lead in the plumbing, rodents and a gas leak, prompting parents to file a Williams Complaint over unsafe learning conditions. SFUSD approved $40 million for repairs in 2021, and district officials said renovations will begin next year.
SFUSD also pledged $100 million of the $744 million bond toward construction of an arts center and the Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts. Money to build the center went toward pandemic-related needs, delaying repairs and construction.
Seventy-nine percent of voters approved the 2016 bond, and district officials said they are hopeful that a 2024 bond will pass to address repairs.
“SFUSD’s debt burden and tax rates are relatively low when compared to other large school districts in the state. SFUSD spends down bonds efficiently and general obligation bond tax rates have always been lower than what was presented to voters in the bond measure at election time,” district spokesperson Laura Dudnick said in a statement.
Fitch Ratings, one of three nationally recognized credit rating agencies, reversed SFUSD’s issuer rating from negative to stable in January. The agency noted that SFUSD worked to address errors within an ongoing structural budget imbalance that prompted intervention by the California Department of Education over a multi-year failure to address large projected deficits.
The district will present the proposed $790 million general obligation bond measure resolution at the May 14 Board of Education meeting.
Had the SF Examiner and Chronicle reprinted the article on the front page Sunday edition Dayton Ohio Daily News (DDN) Oct. 22, 2000 as those editors repeatedly kept calling them to do, extremely puzzled at the “first time” they had ever been shoved off……SF Schools would not ever see this kind of outright raping of the taxpayer. The DDN put it up on the New York Times Newswire for 17 months. The DDN is a huge Cincinnati daily, Cox Chambers newspaper, with Pulitzer Prizes for first time national issues publicized – known for it. What was the story? How schools across the nation from New Jersey to California were being targeted by roofing “manufacturers” out of Ohio for DECADES – using kickbacks and illegally solesourcing products in ways you cannot catch onto easily – with very high prices and redoing the roofs every 6-8 years, not 20-25 years, and without real warranties, actual 5-year high priced maintenance agreements. The scam is massive, it involves school boards and city councils, and in my case, I caught it going on at the University of California San Francisco (as Senior Architect). I was too well trained in Atlanta by the firm that produced 3 National American Institute of Architect’s national Presidents in the 80’s. Over 200 people from 24 states including Alaska and also Canada in the first 6 months after being fired for whistleblowing to the FBI came out to help….and then politicians in San Francisco came out to threaten me in person, saying “Everybody! was involved with kickbacks” (former President of the SF School Board) and then threatened me, one with my life. You would recognize the four. And then the coverups…. It’s still going on, politicians owned on school boards, lowest boards and councils – and so we have terrible education, destruction everywhere. And complicit investigative agencies and enforcement. How lovely. It’s not just in roofing, so many came out over the years to describe what they were fighting in their product areas. Bundling of Mechanical Equipment, Hardware, Windows, Paints, Flooring, Sanitary Equipment & Supplies (which I witnessed in an East Palo Alto middle school trailer, with a Turner Contractor employee from Atlanta accusing the public school facility official of kickbacks for the demanded equipment right in front of me), etc. ALL in PUBLIC WORK. Don’t kid yourself – this bond is filled with incredible fat. Contractors in San Francisco are not known for doing time and materials well-penciled contracts, they are known for throwing out high numbers to see what sticks. It’s probably already decided who gets what and how much, make up the list of costs from a tight cost estimate – never. And it wouldn’t take much to pare it all out. But that’s not what the money is for, it’s to keep education going down further into indoctrination for tyrants to own slaves, dumbed down, messed up kids, using filthy dirty, owned politicians….and money to do it all. Massive hogs at the trough. If you want the copy of the articles, the news stories, the hearings, the audit reports (including the Sept.17 2003 California Bureau of State Audits report in my case in Chapter 5, the IG involvement, the television and honest trade organization reports across the country when the roofing industry finally had an architect go to the FBI about it (who “strongly recommended prosecutions” of my bosses which the State Supreme Court yelled at the UC Attorney “you tell your clients these were criminal acts” over and over and over for about 10 minutes….just ask. Charts that show how it is done. Lists of kickbacks given. And on and on and on – how it is done, the various ways. Who is involved. Want the indoctrination stopped? Get rid of the Dems in the DOJ, and Rinos too. And elsewhere. It deserves a class/video/documentary to teach people how to stop it in their communities and cities. It’s going to take it to get it done. And more.