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Survey says school bond would likely pass
Paper beats rock
BY LEA BOYD
Before a bond measure is inked or a campaign launched, voters are already prepared to approve up to $110 million in funding to improve local public schools. As the Carpinteria Unified School District Board of Education heard at its May 13 meeting, 63 percent of the voters polled in the district supported a school bond initially, and 71 percent supported a bond after hearing statements regarding the need for improvements. Between April 6 and 24, FM3 Research conducted a phone survey of 239 district voters with a recent history of voting. John Fairbank of FM3 presented the board with survey results, painting a positive picture for the district’s chance of passing a bond measure this fall. Surveyors tested voters for three bond amounts, $110, $95 and $80 million, and found no statistical difference in support. Should a bond measure pass by the necessary 55 percent plus one, property taxes would increase corresponding to the bond amount by $55, $47 or $40 per $100,000 of assessed property value. After a year spent developing and revising a draft master facilities plan, a document that will inform the bond amount, the board is scheduled to approve a final plan at its June 10 meeting. Then, on June 24, the board will consider adopting a resolution for a bond measure, which would go before voters this November. The draft facilities master plan includes replacement of 55 aging portable classrooms with new modular buildings at a cost of $21.2 million. Less expensive than traditionally built classrooms, the modular structures are built offsite and installed relatively quickly, reducing the time students are displaced. Other large expenses that are likely to be wrapped into a bond measure are technology and electrical upgrades, safety and security improvements and a new science wing at Carpinteria High School. Polling indicates that top voter priorities, in descending order of importance, are ensuring that bond funds are used locally, retaining and attracting quality teachers, repairing leaky roofs, upgrading fire safety systems, annual independent audits, removing asbestos and lead paint, plumbing and heating/cooling and repairing deteriorating classrooms. The bottom two voter priorities are upgrading sports facilities and improving parking lots and dropoff/pickup areas. The district as a whole enjoys a high level of community confidence. Of those surveyed, 50 percent ranked the entire district as excellent or good, while only 22 percent assessed the district as fair or poor. The rest said they did not know. Support for a bond was highest among those who assessed the district well. White and Latino voters offered about the same level of support. Among Democrats surveyed, 76 percent supported a bond, while 46 percent of Republicans did.
PETER DUGRÉ
Island Brewing Company’s tasting room became a rock, paper, scissors arena on May 12, when craft beer aficionados played a cut throat tournament of wits. Tournament official Will Carleton kept the skilled competitors on task and called the bracket in favor of Maya Halverson Baldwin, whose fast draw paper smothered rock for the win. The special event kicked off Craft Beer Week, which continues through Sunday with small batch releases and activities at IBC, 5049 6th Street.
Teachers plead for greater salary increase
At the same May 13 meeting where school board members heard that the community valued its public schools and would likely support a massive bond measure, board members also heard from a roomful of teachers who feel undervalued and underpaid. CUSD teachers have endured years of uncertainty in their pay schedule. Cost of living increases to their salaries have been spotty, and now that the pulse of the economy is quickening, teachers are at the bargaining table in search of compensation for what some referenced as overdue deferments. Record district reserves amounting to over $4 million—18 percent of the CUSD budget—came under fire as teachers lambasted the board and administrators for hiding behind “doomsday rhetoric,” as teachers union president Jay Hotchner put it, to build unnecessarily high reserves and avoid giving teachers raises. “I’m tired of hearing what you can’t do,” Carpinteria High School teacher Jeremiah Sobenes told the board. “Prioritize. Make us your priority.” In the district’s defense, Board President Andy Sheaffer said though paychecks haven’t grown much, rising health insurance costs have been shouldered by
“Teachers and classified staff are barely making it in this district. I mean, barely making it.”
––Felicity Moore
CUSD at great expense. Right now, he said, the district is offering teachers a 3 percent salary increase on top of a 1 percent one-time payment. Add to this higher health care costs that amount to 2.29 percent of wages, and the total increase in compensation being offered is 6.29 percent. Debra Leiter, a CMS teacher, told the board that its first offer of a 1 percent cost of living adjustment was “a slap in the face” and 3 percent was still insufficient to make up for several years at no increase. “Teachers and classified staff are barely making it in this district,” Felicity Moore said. “I mean, barely
TEACHERS continued on page 14