Measure K, the $65 million Mammoth School District bond measure would extend the bond that was passed in 1998, according to Gloria Vasquez, the Bond Campaign Coordinator, who spoke at a public meeting on September 9.

The 1998 bond, which expires this year, set a maximum rate for school district bonds of $30.80, and Measure K would bring the total tax from $16.11 up to $30.80 per $100,000 of assessed value. If your home is assessed at $400,000, you would pay $123.20 per year to the school district.

The bond money would replace the existing high school in phase one, and then work on the middle and elementary schools in phase two.

The high school, however, is the big ticket item, using $53 million of the $65 million of the bond measure. The plan is to build the new high school on the soccer fields over a four year period. Students would be able to remain in the old high school facility while construction is taking place. Once the new building is complete, including a new gym, the old building would be demolished and new fields would be built in its place. The old gym, however, will remain.

“This way we have more space for teams to practice during the winter months,” Vasquez said. “They don’t have to arm wrestle over who gets to practice from 3-7 p.m. and who has to practice from 7-10 p.m.”

Measure K committee member Tom Cage pointed out that the soccer fields sit vacant much of the time. “Since soccer starts around November, our fields don’t get used and our home field is in Big Pine,” Cage explained.

With all the measures placed on the ballots in the past few years, voters may feel less than enthusiastic. Measure K, however, is earmarked for specific items that have not been among the measures in the past few years. Even last year’s Measure S, which was placed on the ballot by the School District in June and failed, but passed in November. It was a parcel tax, not a bond measure extension. Measure S had been earmarked for supplies and class size reduction, not the building of a new high school.

Measure K needs 55 percent of the vote to pass, and if it does so, would not expire until 2046. A tour of the existing high school is scheduled for September 23 at 5:30 p.m. Participants should meet in the foyer/main hallway of the school. For more information call Vasquez or Shanna Bissonette at 934-0135.

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