With about $280 million worth of repairs needed at Del Norte schools, the district will take steps if the community will support another bond measure in the next election to pay for those improvements.

Del Norte Unified School District Board of Trustees on Thursday approved a contract with Isom Advisors to conduct a survey and determine if a school improvement measure is likely to pass in the November 2020 election.

According to the district’s staff report, if a bond measure is unsuccessful in the election or if it doesn’t get placed on a ballot, since Isom Advisors works on a contingent basis, there will be no cost. However, the district will be asked to pay $7,500 for the survey, according to the staff report. Isom Advisors’ fee will be paid out of the bond proceeds, according to the report.

According to DNUSD spokesman Michael Hawkins, any bond that gets placed on a ballot would be about $20 million or $30 million. That figure is about as much as the district can ask the community to support, Hawkins told the Wild Rivers Outpost on Friday.

According to the district’s proposed timeline for a potential bond measure, the Board of Trustees will review a list of potential projects that could be paid for using bond measure dollars.

These include upgrading a number of HVAC systems at several schools, Hawkins told the Outpost. Isom Advisors will conduct a community survey between February and March. Advisors will also speak with local elected officials, community service groups and large taxpayers to discuss a proposed tax measure, according to the staff report.

The Board of Trustees is expected to view the survey results in April. A capital and financing plan and the project list, tax rate statement and ballot language are expected to be finalized in May.
According to Hawkins, if approved, bond money could be used to upgrade HVAC systems at six school sites at approximately $250,000 each.

Bond measure dollars can also be used as a district contribution to receive state modernization dollars. In a presentation before the school board in October, Steve Morgan, the district’s director of facilities and construction, said the campuses eligible for modernization dollars include Bess Maxwell, Mary Peacock, Mountain, Redwood and Smith River schools.

Mary Peacock is eligible for $2.5 million in state modernization dollars, Morgan told the school board in October. Smith River and Redwood, two of the oldest facilities in the district, are eligible for the least amount in modernization dollars.

Morgon has estimated that the district as more than $280 million in needed repairs at its school sites, Hawkins told the Outpost.

Over the summer, the district Board of Trustees approved the sale of the final $4.9 million in a $25 million general obligation bond voters approved in 2008. Money from that bond measure paid for the new gym at Smith River School.

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