$1.2 billion South Bay school facilities bond headed for November ballot

In a surprise special meeting, San Jose Unified School District’s board of trustees unanimously approved placing a nearly $1.2 billion bond measure onto the November ballot to upgrade school facilities and provide employee housing.

The measure will appear on the Nov. 5 ballot, where it will need support from 55% of local voters to pass. If approved, the $1.15 billion bond would go toward upgrading and repairing facilities across the South Bay’s largest public school district, and to create affordable housing for teachers and staff.

“We heard it in the public comment, we all know it and most of us live it,” said the district’s chief business officer, Seth Reddy. “Housing affordability is a massive challenge for all of our staff…the first thing we would focus on is to try to figure out if we’re going to be able to do that and how we do that as fast as possible.”

The bonds would be paid by an annual assessment of up to $60 per $100,000 of value on properties within the district, averaging $414, district officials said.

Thursday night’s board meeting was announced barely 24 hours in advance, the second special session in as many days. District leaders explained that they called the special board meeting because they needed to pass the bond measure by Aug. 9 in order to meet the November ballot deadline. Any further delay would result in lost campaigning time.

Thursday’s meeting got off to a rocky start when it took the board 30 minutes just to approve the meeting agenda, an action that typically takes a few minutes at most.

One of the biggest reasons for the delay involved a community workforce agreement. Board members disagreed on whether to approve the project without the agreement, which would partner with the Santa Clara and San Benito Counties Building and Construction Trades Council to guarantee the hiring of local workers from underrepresented populations, among ensuring other worker protections.

San Jose Unified superintendent Nancy Albarrán clarified that the district is currently in negotiations with the trades council and asked the board to consider approving the bond measure separate from the community workforce agreement. Albarrán said the district is “closer than ever” to finalizing an agreement and said she is “a person of (her) word.”

But trustees Carla Collins and Teresa Castellanos cited “trust issues” over approving the bond measure without a commitment to finalize negotiations.

“I do not support policy that does not support public education and high quality education,” Collins said. “I feel absolutely horrible and astounded that we’re not at an agreement right now and I don’t think that is acceptable.”

Almost all of the 11 public speakers in attendance Thursday night expressed support for the community workforce agreement, many of whom were construction workers and union members.

The Santa Clara and San Benito Counties Building and Construction Trades Council represents 23 different unions and about 35,000 members, executive director David Bini said. Bini explained that the community workforce agreement would benefit the entire San Jose Unified community, ensure fair wages and working conditions, keep the district’s money local and prevent labor strikes.

“Students and faculty deserve excellent facilities,” Bini said. “Workers deserve fair pay practices and opportunities for local workers. Voters deserve to have their tax dollars spent wisely. A community workforce agreement would deliver that for all of the entire community.”

But Bini said negotiations with San Jose Unified have stalled over a disagreement on how many projects would be covered by the agreement. He pointed out that there is a “mistaken belief” that a community workforce agreement would cause a cost increase or reduce project bid competition.

A 2017 University of California at Berkeley study analyzed more than 250 public projects and found the workforce agreements had no impact on project costs or the number of bidders. A recent Illinois Economic Policy Institute study also found that labor agreements can boost apprenticeships, guarantee bid competition and stabilize public construction costs.

But other academics disagree, arguing there is not enough evidence to support those claims. And a National University System Institute for Policy Research found construction costs are 13% to 15% higher when school districts complete projects with a labor agreement.

Ultimately, the board directed staff to continue to work on negotiations, with the goal of bringing an agreement back to the Aug. 22 board meeting.