West Hills District voters asked to approve $20 million bond measure on November ballot

West Hills Community College District’s board of trustees approved a resolution at their last meeting to ask its district voters to approve a $20 million school bond measure on the November ballot. The proposed bond issue is unique in that it does not construct any new facilities but instead, in order to keep up with rapidly emerging new technology, provides funds to purchase equipment every five years for the next two decades.

“West Hills has been a leader in technology for many years,” said Board Chairman Mark McKean. “Passing this bond will ensure that leadership role for the future.” The funds would be earmarked solely for new and upgraded equipment and technology at the district’s two campuses in Coalinga and Lemoore and at the North District Center, Firebaugh.

Those voters who reside within the West Hills Community College District, a majority of whom live in Fresno and Kings Counties, will vote Nov. 4 on the question on the ballot. Their decision will determine whether the college can issue general obligation bonds of about $5 million every five years until the $20 million limit is reached. The estimated average tax rate required to fund this bond is approximately $9.87 per $100,000 of assessed valuation.

The board acted after hearing a presentation from Dale Scott, one of the state’s leading financial advisors to school districts. Scott said the timed release aspect of the bond issue would lower borrowing costs to “pennies on the dollar” and allow the district to keep up with the rapidly changing technological advances faced by schools in the modern computer age.

“Technology will change, and it’s vital that we keep up,” said Len Falter, the district’s newest trustee who is a business coach and advisor who spent 30 years in the telecommunications industry and worked as an instructor and analyst on the Minuteman Missile System for the U.S. Air Force. “This will make sure we do keep up with the changes that are certain to come.”

As required by law, the resolution contains the proposed ballot language that voters will be asked to approve:  “To increase student access to computers; maintain and upgrade educational software; keep pace with 21st Century technological innovations; and significantly reduce borrowing costs, shall (the district) issue $20 million of short-term bonds with interest rates at or below the legal limit…?” The ballot text also spells out there must be independent citizen oversight of funds generated by the sale of the bonds, supported by an annual audit, and that no money may be used for salaries for either administrators or staff. The safeguards are required under Proposition 39k which governs school bond issues.

Scott, who operates Dales Scott & Company, Inc. in San Francisco, has long been an advocate of holding down borrowing costs for school bond issues. He told the board that by issuing the bonds in roughly $5 million increments and paying them off in approximately five years to reduce the cost of borrowing to “a bare minimum … almost all of the bond dollars will go to fund purchases instead of going to interest payments.”