Civil Rights in Education in California: School Bonds, Past and Future
PART THREE — Relevant to any discussion about school building facilities are school bonds, which are frequently used to fund building upgrades. Proposition A was a $744 million local school bond that appeared on the ballot in the November 8, 2016 election. It passed with 80% of the vote. The San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) signed arguments in favor of this measure in the ballot handbook.
The ballot language read as follows:
“To repair and rehabilitate San Francisco Unified School District facilities to current accessibility, health, safety, seismic and instructional standards, replace worn-out plumbing, electrical, HVAC and major building systems, renovate outdated classroom and training facilities, construct school facilities and replace aging modular classrooms, improve information technology systems and food service preparation systems, Shall the San Francisco Unified School District issue bonds in an amount not to exceed $744,250,000 at legal rates, with annual audits, and citizen’s oversight?”
Oversight was to take the form of an independent Citizens’ Oversight Committee or Citizens’ Bond Oversight Committee (CBOC). The requirements of oversight were detailed in the ballot handbook as follows:
“The Board of Education shall establish an independent Citizens’ Oversight Committee (pursuant to Education Code Section 15278 and following), to ensure bond proceeds are spent only for the school facilities projects listed in the Bond Project List. The committee shall be established within 60 days of the date on which the Board of Education enters the election results on its minutes.”
“The Board of Education shall conduct an annual, independent performance audit to ensure that the bond proceeds have been expended only on the school facilities projects listed in the Bond Project List.”
“The Board of Education shall conduct an annual, independent financial audit of the bond proceeds (which shall be separate from the District’s regular annual financial audit) until all of those proceeds have been spent for the school facilities projects listed in the Bond Project List.”
Unfortunately, the school board failed to ensure that the legally mandated oversight committee was in place after the 2016 bond passed. This failure meant that bond money was spent without proper accountability.
Not only was no oversight committee seated for two years, but also, the required audits were not up-to-date. Neither financial nor performance audits were approved in a timely manner. Furthermore, the audits that were performed were very limited in scope.
Diligent journalists have worked to expose the mismanagement of bond funds. The lack of oversight was described by Alex Lash in “The Frisc”:
“In exchange for a lower vote threshold — 55 percent to pass — the district promised the bond would have a citizens’ oversight committee. The committee’s bylaws say it must meet at least four times a year. Until last year, it never did. In fact, it didn’t exist much of the time. Until a new slate of members formed in May 2021, the committee had met only once across nearly three years, according to public records, and not at all from August 2019 onward.”
As the finally formed CBOC has pointed out, the public needs to be much better informed as to how bond funds are being allocated and spent.
Former President of the Board of Supervisors Matt Gonzalez mentioned mismanagement of bond money as an issue motivating his support for the ultimately successful recall of three school board members earlier this year.
https://mtt-gonzalez33.medium.com/why-i-support-the-san-francisco-school-board-recall-e95c74ab2e5b
When problems with Buena Vista Horace Man facilities were documented, meetings with local school officials were organized. However, it was only after getting media attention, such as in this June 2019 article by Jennifer Cortez published in Mission Local, that our concerns were heard.
As discussed in Part Two, the School Accountability Report Cards are not accurate. This means that the public does not have a proper assessment of the conditions of our school buildings. BVHM parents were told that there were multiple schools in the district with safety hazards. However, orders for repair work were often closed without being resolved. The public needs a list of schools in disrepair, and their issues, so that they may be remedied.
At a 2021 online meeting of the School Site Council of Buena Vista Horace Mann, Assistant Superintendent Jason Hannon told over 50 participants from the school that we would have to “go to the voters” and pass an additional bond measure before BVHM could be remodeled. Those in attendance balked at this claim.
All the while people were reporting problems with BVHM, the school board had the power to decree that the school be upgraded. A properly noticed agenda item would have been all it took for the project to be compelled forward. Thankfully, Matt Alexander and others from the school board did finally take these steps, voting to authorize $40 million for improvements.
And the funding authorization couldn’t come too soon.
There is reportedly a new $1 billion school bond in the pipeline for San Francisco November 2022, but voters may well be skeptical. I recommend Laurance Lee’s Substack “Eyes on SF Board of Education” for more details on the history of the 2016 Proposition A school bond. https://eyessfboe.substack.com/
