A measure appearing on the Aliso Viejo ballot Nov. 8 asks voters if the Capistrano Unified School District should take out a $144 million bond to repair its neighborhood schools.
Eight schools also need repairs and upgrades to meet current health, safety, fire, and earthquake standards, according to district officials, specifically: Canyon Vista, Don Juan Avila, Oak Grove, and Wood Canyon elementary schools, Aliso Viejo and Don Juan Avila middle schools, and Aliso Niguel High.
If passed by voters, the bond will also allow for updates of playgrounds and bring technology into classrooms, according to the school district.
The measure would require Aliso Viejo property owners to pay $44 per $100,000 of their assessed property’s value for the next 30 years.
If the measure passes, the school district would be eligible to receive up to $29 million from the state in matching funds.
Those in favor argue that nearly all other Orange County communities have passed similar school improvement measures—and Aliso Viejo schools need to make these repairs and updates in order to offer students a quality education.
In addition, the website claims about a third of Aliso Viejo students are Laguna Niguel residents whose parents wouldn’t pay for the bond—and that many of the needed repairs were promised in a previous bond measure passed in 1999.
The district in 2016 and 2020 tried to get other bonds for needed updates to its schools, but those measures failed to gather the support needed to make it onto the ballot.
Recent polling by the district indicates the new measure may not have enough support to pass.
The bond measure was first introduced to the district’s school board for consideration in May, alongside a similar measure for repairs at Dana Hills High School, which is in the district.
While the Aliso Viejo measure passed June 15, the Dana Hills High bond failed in a split final vote, with trustees in opposition saying the tax for that measure was too high given the current economic inflation.
Trustee Gila Jones, who voted against the Dana Hills measure, cited recent polling by the district that showed Dana Hills’s proposed bond measure did not have enough support to meet a required voter threshold of 55 percent to pass.
“It has not polled high enough to pass,” Jones said of the Dana Hills bond during a June meeting. “I wish it would, and I would vote for it.”
Orange County school districts currently have up to three bonds for various projects, with tax levies ranging from $7.45 to $79.90 per $100,000 of assessed value, according to the Capistrano Unified School District.
Capistrano Unified currently has one bond with a $7.45 per $100,000 of assessed property value tax levy.
The latest bond measure comes as the district faces a projected funding shortfall brought on by declining student enrollment.
In May, a budget presentation projected enrollment for Capistrano Unified would drop by 812 students for the 2022–23 school year, putting the district at around 42,000 students.
The measure requires 55 percent of votes in its favor to pass.
