News Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                          July 17, 2002

Board approves $207 million bond measure for November ballot

Overcrowded and aging facilities, infrastructure
problems behind need to go to voters

EL CAJON – The Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District Governing Board unanimously voted Tuesday night to place a $207 million bond measure on the Nov. 5 ballot, citing urgent and longstanding needs related to aging, overcrowded facilities.

Trustees said the bond measure represents the most realistic solution to a crisis brought about by grossly inadequate funding from the state and rapidly growing enrollments. If approved by voters, bond proceeds would provide funds at both colleges to construct new instructional buildings, repair, renovate and expand existing buildings, and upgrade electrical and wiring systems to accommodate high-tech needs.

“The district is in desperate need of funding to maintain and expand aging facilities,” said Governing Board President Rick Alexander. “After considering all other funding possibilities, it is abundantly clear that the needs of the district are so great that we have no option but to seek the backing of the public on this issue.”

If approved by voters, the bond will cost homeowners a maximum of $25 annually over a 30-year period for every $100,000 of assessed value. Voters in the East San Diego County communites of Alpin, Crest, Dehesa, El Cajon, Jamul, Lakeside, La Mesa, Lemon Grove, Rancho San Diego, Santee, Spring Valley and beyond to the Imperial County border and the Mexican border will decide the issue.

Support for the measure was also unanimous Tuesday among the college presidents, faculty and staff representatives, student leaders and administrators, all of whom addressed the board.  In describing the tremendous need for the bond measure, Grossmont College history instructor Mel Amov, representing the faculty union, United Faculty, cited examples of a hallway that’s been converted into a reading lab and a closet that now serves as an office.

Chancellor Omero Suarez, who presented the issue, pointed out that colleges built to accommodate 8,300 students now enroll more than 26,000 and are projected to serve 35,000 by 2015.

Suarez said the district lacks the substantial resources needed to operate facilities efficiently and to update outmoded classrooms, labs and infrastructure.

 “The growth rate is up and despite extraordinary efforts to maintain them, our systems are just worn out,” said Suarez said. “We need to replace roofs and labs and expand facilities to serve more students.”

The chancellor said five facilities-related master plans are in place for scheduled maintenance, repair and renovation, energy conservation, technology and construction. Without the bond, however, the district is far short of the funding to implement them.

The resolution approved by trustees calls for establishing an independent Citizens Oversight Committee to work with the governing board to ensure the bond funds will be spent as promised and not wasted. The committee will include community members with expertise in construction, procurement and finance, taxpayer organizations and others representing the broad scope of community interests in the district.

In addition to the oversight committee, an independent audit of bond expenditures will be conducted annually, with results released to the public.

The board approved ballot language that “every cent will spent directly on the renovations, repairs, construction, equipment and infrastructure such as plumbing, wiring, sewers, and foundations,” as specified in the bond measure and that no money will be spent on administrator salaries.

With the state budget crisis making it unlikely that the district’s underfunded status will change, the time is right to seek bond monies, district officials say.  And with both colleges reporting escalating enrollments when they are already stretched beyond capacity, a solution is needed now, they add.

“Today, it is crunch time and very shortly, it will be crisis time,” Trustee Wendell Cutting said.

Calling the district “the jewel of East County”, Cutting said supporting the bond measure makes good business sense because of the economic impact the college district has on the region, totaling hundreds of millions of dollars.

“This bond proposal could be summed up in two words: common sense,” Cutting said. “This is a common sense bond, based totally on the needs of our current and future students and the economic viability of East County. It is based on facts… This measure is about students. This measure is about our future. This measure is about the future of East County.  It is only common sense to support what is right – and that is this bond measure.”

According to the colleges’ facilities master plans approved by the board this year, new buildings that are eligible for bond funding at Grossmont College include a science classroom and laboratory building, a health professions and nursing instructional facilities and an instructional technology center. At Cuyamaca, new buildings that may be funded with the passage of the bond measure include a communications instructional lab building and a science and technology center.

Amov with United Faculty, said it is a credit to Grossmont that the college has managed over the years to succeed in the face of aging facilities and technology.

“There has been institutional poverty for years,” he said. “If we have been able to accomplish so much with so little, just think what we can do for students with more adequate space.” 

# # #

Intergovernmental Relations, Economic Development, and Public Information
8800 Grossmont College Drive  El Cajon, CA 92020-1799
Phone 619-644-7573 Fax 619-644-7924