Culver City School Board: We support giving the voters the right to vote on a school facilities b...

1) OUR SCHOOLS DESPERATELY NEED THIS: Our great schools are in a desperate and even dangerous state of disrepair and neglect. Over $165 million of critical repairs have been investigated, catalogued and presented to the school board and the public.

2) THIS IS AN INEXPENSIVE & SMART BOND: This bond will cost the average homeowning voter $6 per month. This small amount, however, will leverage $70 million to repair & modernize our schools. Any delays risk an increase in current historic low-interest rates which could cost the taxpayers millions in higher repayments.

3) BONDS ARE THE BEST MECHANISM: The only way a small school district like ours can leverage enough money to even make at least 40% of these repairs & upgrades is through a bond. This is the way that almost all school districts in our situation have always done it in California because of prop 13.

4) VOTERS OVERWHELMINGLY SUPPORT IT: Two-thirds of the voters most likely to vote in November have said they would support a $70 million bond, including over 60% of seniors. Only one-quarter oppose it. And that is before any organizing campaign to increase parent & supporter voter turnout has begun. Our pollster has a 95% accuracy rate over 19 years. Our bond campaign consultant team have won the bond election in 47 of the last 49 districts that have hired them. We only need 55% of voters to support it to win. We will achieve far more than that.

5) SUPERINTENDENT HAS WORKED ON THIS FOR A YEAR: The superintendent has been talking about the facilities needs in our district since he was hired a year ago. He’s done countless facility walk-throughs. The school board hired a respected firm to catalog every single possible issue that was in need of repair. They also hired one of the strongest bond counsel, bond campaign team and bond pollster in the entire state. While some school board members have raised legitimate questions in this final hour, none of these questions merit a delay in the bond election. Instead, the board should pass a comprehensive accountability & facility master plan process to cover the life of this bond & beyond. Such a plan + the money from a November bond are the best steps to make sure our schools never falls into such a state of disrepair again.

Our schools belong to the community. The community wants this bond. They have the right to let their votes be counted. Just because the school board is not united doesn’t mean our community isn’t. Don’t block our right to vote- put the bond on the November ballot.