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By David Downey | Contributing Writer
Voters in the Alvord Unified School District will decide on a $248-million bond measure that would fund upgrades at schools in western Riverside and part of northeast Corona – including making them safer.
Measure J on the Nov. 8 ballot needs 55% support in favor to pass.
The district wants to sell $248 million in bonds and levy an annual tax of $60 per $100,000 of assessed property value, or a little less than $175 per year for the typical area homeowner, according to the district. Alvord’s last school bond was approved in 2012. The district, which is headquartered in Corona, serves about 17,000 students at 23 campuses.
Measure J is going to voters when anxiety about campus security is high, after the Aug. 19 sexual assault of a girl in a restroom by an intruder at the district’s S. Christa McAuliffe Elementary School in Riverside’s La Sierra neighborhood.
Students at Collett Elementary School in Riverside play in and around the new shade structure Thursday, Sept. 29, 2022. Measure J, a $248-million bond measure in the Alvord Unified School District, would fund upgrades, repairs and new facilities at the district’s 23 schools. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)
Students at Collett Elementary School in Riverside play Thursday, Sept. 29, 2022, in and around a new shade structure. Measure J, a $248-million bond measure in the Alvord Unified School District, would fund upgrades, repairs and new facilities at the district’s 23 schools. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)
Collett Elementary School students use a new shade structure on the Riverside campus Thursday, Sept. 29, 2022. Measure J, a $248-million bond measure in the Alvord Unified School District, would fund upgrades, repairs and new facilities at the district’s 23 schools. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)
Collett Elementary School students play in and around the new shade structure on the Riverside campus Thursday, Sept. 29, 2022. Measure J, a $248-million bond measure in the Alvord Unified School District, would fund upgrades, repairs and new facilities at the district’s 23 schools. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)
Students play near the new shade structure at Collett Elementary School in Riverside on Thursday, Sept. 29, 2022. Measure J, a $248-million bond measure in the Alvord Unified School District, would fund upgrades, repairs and new facilities at the district’s 23 schools. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)
Collett Elementary School Principal Crystal Berrellez stands Thursday, Sept. 29, 2022, near the Riverside school’s new shade structure. Measure J, a $248-million bond measure in the Alvord Unified School District, would fund upgrades, repairs and new facilities at the district’s 23 schools. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)
School officials said the intruder climbed two sets of chain-link fences to get into the kindergarten-through-fifth grade school. A registered sex offender was arrested and charged.
The measure also heads for the ballot as Alvord prepares to replace 6-foot-tall, chain-link perimeter fences with “anti-climb 8-foot” fencing and install security cameras at all campuses, beginning with elementary schools, Superintendent Allan Mucerino wrote in a Sunday, Sept. 25, newsletter. Experts and some educators said chain-link fences are relatively easy to scale, and some public school systems are going to thick steel fences that are harder to climb.
Mucerino said by phone that the installation of fences and cameras will start in a week or two at McAuliffe, honoring a commitment made to parents to promptly boost its security.
Next up, he said, will be Collett, Lake Hills, Myra Linn and Promenade elementary schools, which are next to parks.
Mucerino wrote in his newsletter that new fences will have a wire mesh that makes it “very difficult to get a foothold,” and “cutting implements required to sever its welded heavy steel wire cannot fit into the minimal spaces of the mesh.”
The district plans to install surveillance cameras and 8-foot-tall, heavy steel fences at all its campuses this school year – whether or note the bond passes, Mucerino said. The cost will vary, but is estimated at $200,000 to $300,000 per school.
If the measure passes, Alvord will invest more dollars in safety and security, getting “the opportunity to do things on a grander scale,” Mucerino said.
Measure J also would modernize school buildings, classrooms, science laboratories and athletic facilities, officials said.
According to a district webpage, the money would be used to:
Norte Vista High School Athletic Director Ron Main said there is a need to invest in sports facilities.
For example, his boys’ soccer team had to “host” CIF championship games at nearby schools – Ramona High School in Riverside earlier this year and Santiago High School in Corona in 2021.
Players and coaches were “really bummed” about not being able to play at their school, said Main, who added: “We still had to take a bus.”
Norte Vista’s stadium is designed for football and isn’t wide enough for soccer, he said.
A reconstruction – involving moving drains and track-and-field facilities, and raising areas off the sidelines – would be needed to host soccer, he said. The work is an example of a project that would be undertaken with Measure J funds, he said.
Not everyone favors the bond.
Sharon Mateja, a La Sierra resident and chairperson of the west Riverside group Residents for Responsible Representation, said now is not the time seek a property-tax increase.
“We don’t know if we are going into a recession … or if we are going to be OK,” she said.
Mateja said the district hasn’t provided a “project list” detailing how the money would be spent. By that, she means a list that specifies individual construction projects, where they will be built, how much they will cost and when.
“They are asking us to write a blank check,” she said.
Zack Earp, president of the Alvord Foundational Foundation, which is advocating for passage, disagreed and said there is a list.
“I’ve looked at it very carefully and it’s a sound measure,” added Earp, a former educator and Alvord school board member. “There is no question about the need … Some of our schools are over 70 years old.”
According to a question-and-answer page on the district’s website, the Measure J spending plan is based on a “conceptual facilities master plan” that identified $1.5 billion in needed or desired improvements. There is a breakdown, with costs, of improvements proposed for each school. The bond would fund a small fraction of these improvements.
Mateja said that the master plan doesn’t spell out what Measure J would finance.
Earp said voters can take comfort that a citizens oversight committee would be formed and that independent audits would ensure the measure’s dollars are spent properly.
The annual property-tax increase for the typical homeowner would be $173.87, Mucerino said, and the levy could remain for up to 36 years. Homeowners would continue to pay property taxes on the 2012 bond until 2042, he said.
“With voter support, our students will experience school in safe, modern and inspiring environments,” Mucerino said. “They deserve nothing less.”
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