What to know about school bonds and Napa’s $230 million Measure B

Two years ago, Napans narrowly turned down the $200 million school bond Measure A1 , which would have paid for renovations and repairs at public schools in and around the city of Napa.

The Napa Valley Unified School District is trying again, asking voters to reconsider with a new $230 million school bond on the ballot called Measure B. (Confusingly, this is unrelated to a St. Helena-specific ballot initiative, also called Measure B, which relates to a controversial hotel project in the Upvalley city.)

According to NVUSD's spokesperson Julie Bordes, no matter how fiscally responsible a school district is, "systematic, large-scale improvements" to school campuses can't happen without school bonds.

"Absent a bond, school facility needs will continue to increase exponentially," Bordes said in an email. "We can complete some small-scale repairs and respond to critical emergencies as needed, but nothing of the scale that needs to be completed."

Bordes said that by law, bond money is not allowed to be used for things like teacher or administrator salaries.

Opponents counter that there needs to be a better way to finance school repairs and improvements without increasing homeowners' property tax bills. A change needs to come from the state government, and voting against the bond may help force the issue in Sacramento, they say.

What are school bonds?

School bonds, according to EdSource , are a borrowing method intended for large capital improvement projects, such as major construction or repairs, and function similarly to a mortgage or home equity loan.

The principal and interest are repaid by local property owners through an increase in property taxes.

School bonds must pass by a 55% majority of votes, and historically have a high passage rate.

However, according to the political commentator and Sonoma State University political science Professor David McCuan, that number has diminished since 2016, when voters started to notice increasing costs in all directions.

"These folks are older, tend to be whiter, and tend to be regular habitual voters," McCuan said. "They're paying, and they might not have kids in school. They might have grandkids in school, but that's different from the industry that's struggling and serving them."

Data from the Public Policy Institute of California show that, in general, Californians still favor school bonds. In 2017, 68% of adults and 58% of likely voters said they would support a local school bond.

Passage is hardly guaranteed, however. Despite numerous school bonds being approved in the past, Napa voters turned down Measure A1 in 2022 by about a hundred votes.

Marguerite Roza is director of Georgetown University's Edunomics Lab, which studies education finance. She said that in recent years, there are areas across the U.S. where some measures always pass or always fail. Multiple factors are at play for areas in between.

"What can matter is how big the measure is," Roza said. "Or how the economy is right now. If the economy is already stretching voters thinner for some reason, they might be less inclined to."

What will this bond do?

Measure B is a general obligation bond , which EdSource notes is the form of bond most commonly used for school construction.

According to the Napa school district's website, the bond would go towards funding repairs, safety improvements and improved technology for local public schools. This would charter schools that are on NVUSD property. (Mayacamas Countywide Charter Middle School, which operates within the former St. John the Baptist Catholic School building, would not receive any bond money if the measure passes.

Bordes said that most schools within NVUSD were built more than 60 years ago and require intervention. The district website states some of the repairs needed include fixes for leaking roofs, unreliable heating, cooling, and ventilation systems, and removal of safety hazards like asbestos. On top of repairs, the website also indicates over 100 temporary structures need to be removed due to safety risks.

The NVUSD website lists the schools in need of improvements and what would be improved if Measure B is passed. Those schools include Alta Heights Elementary, New Technology High School and Silverado Middle School, among about 17 others – more than half the campuses in the district.

The district also breaks down the $230 million figure. Of the breakdown, the biggest chunk of $100 million will go toward "Roofs, HVAC, Exterior Paint and Path of Travel." The second largest portion of $46 million will go towards "Classroom Refresh: Interior Paint, Flooring, Ceiling Tile, and Lighting."

If the bond passes, the district said that it would cost property owners $24 per $100,000 of assessed property value per year. That amounts to about $125 for the median homeowner.

Historically, according to Bordes, bonds take around 25 to 30 years to pay off.

Who is for it? A trio of parents – Simone Katz O'Neill, Lisa DeVore and Summer Gilgallon – are co-chairing Measure B's campaign committee.

Their campaign message is simple: Napa schools are old and in serious need of repair.

"Measure B is necessary and the only way to make desperately needed repairs on a broad scale," they said in an email. "If we don't vote yes, schools will continue to worsen and our community will eventually have to pay more to meet even a minimum standard."

The committee also noted that if Measure B were to pass, the district would be eligible for $115 million in state-funded matching dollars.

Bordes added that California has a school facilities grant program. In order to qualify, there needs to be a local funding source, which would be Measure B if voters approve it.

According to the campaign's website, Measure B is backed by many Napa leaders. Supporters include state Sen. Bill Dodd, D-Napa; former Napa County Supervisor Brad Wagenknecht; Napa Mayor Scott Sedgley; and current Supervisor Joelle Gallagher, to name a few.

Who is against it? Tom Orlando, president of the Napa Tax Association, has been the main voice of opposition.

In his argument to the Napa County registrar, Orlando said that the bond language is the same "boilerplate language" used in previous bonds, and that the school board should use its authority to "budget and perform maintenance rather than rely solely on expensive bonds to fix neglected maintenance."

According to tax documents shared with the Register, Orlando noted he is currently paying for three previously passed school bonds on his property taxes – from 2002, 2006 and 2016.

"They'll get the projects lined up, they'll get the permits, the contractors, they'll do the projects and just about the time the projects run out, let's ask for another bond to keep it going," Orlando said. "I think something needs to be done at a higher level, the state level."

According to Orlando, the state grant matching program seems to incentivize putting more bond measures on the ballot. That means more property taxes at a time where people are pinching pennies.

"These types of things are ill-timed," Orlando said. "We're paying a lot in PG&E, gas, food."

Orlando believes that cutting programs that don't work, tighter fiscal management and reevaluating administrator salaries could help, but acknowledges that NVUSD Superintendent Rosanna Mucetti has had to make hard decisions and can tell the district is cutting its spending.

"This is complicated stuff," he said. "You really have to be in it to understand all the nuts and bolts of how the funding, what they can spend it for and what they can't spend it for."

How have they worked in the past? Though the previous bond measure for schools failed in Napa, American Canyon residents passed Measure A2, a $25 million bond, in 2022.

The Napa school district has yet to put an implementation plan on its website, but has listed planned improvements by school site .

McCuan believes that the reason the 2022 narrowly missed approval was twofold: low turnout and a lack of outreach.

"There weren't as many interesting things on the ballot, and it's super-close," he said. "Had they had a better pro campaign? They would have been there."

Bordes said that polling numbers from earlier this year on this current bond give reason for hope.

"We re-analyzed our facilities' needs and areas that we felt were also aligned with what we believe are our community, employee and student interests," Bordes said.

In a poll of about 550 residents conducted in April, about 90% of respondents said that repairing roofs, plumbing, heating, ventilation and electrical systems was a high priority.

In 2016, NVUSD voters approved Measure H. According to the school district's website, that $269 million bond focused on repairing earthquake and fire damage, upgrading plumbing and ventilation systems, and modernizing technology in classrooms, as well as improving security across most campuses.

Bordes said that all Measure H dollars have been assigned or spent on existing projects, and Measure A2 funds can only be used in American Canyon.

"With significant needs remaining in our district, the district decided to pursue a measure this fall only for the schools in the Napa area," Bordes said.

In 2009, Napa school district leaders took out what is known as a capital appreciation bond to help build American Canyon High School. The California Policy Center explains that capital appreciation bonds "allow school and college districts to circumvent state laws that limit taxes and debt relative to the total value of property in the districts. But they also subject future generations of Californians to potentially burdensome taxes and debt."

According to an in SFGate , NVUSD took out a $22 million loan with no payments for 21 years, which at the time would cost taxpayers $154 million in the long run.

When asked about that bond, Bordes said the district's current leadership takes bond repayment seriously, and has not and will not issue capital appreciation bonds. Bordes noted that the district has bought back some of the debt from the 2009 bond to save taxpayer money.

"We successfully convinced the holders of this debt to refinance (63.6%) of the $22 million, or $14 million," she said. "Since these bonds were non-callable (not payable until the maturity date), we could not force the holders of the debt to sell it back to us. Even so, this will result in savings of approximately $45 million through the year 2049."

How will the public know if the district will use the money as promised? In 2002, Proposition 39 changed the criteria of school bond approval from a two-thirds majority to a 55% vote. It also required that California school boards appoint an oversight committee that informs the public about bond spending.

According to Bordes, the committee needs to include representatives from a variety of groups – a senior citizens' organization, a business, a parent, a parent active in a parent-teacher association, a taxpayers' association, and a general member of the public.

In the case of Measure H, Napa resident Jill Barwick represented the taxpayers' group. She said their job was to make sure the money was spent responsibility and produce an annual report, but also feels the committee has limited power.

"We don't have any real teeth," she said.

Richard Beck, chair of the Measure H committee, agrees that the body holds little sway over the elected board, but is satisfied with the way money was spent. He is a building contractor by trade, and sees how vital it is to approve funding to help correct structural building failures within the district.

Beck believes that the district's bookkeeping is accurate, and that it has been transparent about its figures.

"If you go on the internet to Napa Unified School District and look at the bond oversight committee and look up there, it will give you exactly what we spent on all the schools," he said. " I mean, exactly to the penny ."

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