North Monterey County Unified School District Board approved 4-1 to include a $40 million bond to upgrade school facilities on the November 2026 ballot.
“Let's move on, and do what's right, and do what's right for our children, and do what's right for our staff, and do what's right for our community,” Trustee Adriana Melgoza said.
Trustee Ricardo Diaz was the only opposing vote. “I'm not convinced that this will be successful, so I'm not going to spur it,” Diaz said, adding it would be more beneficial to wait for a presidential election.
The $40 million bond is one-fifth of the $200 million the district needs to upgrade all its facilities. Some schools are more than 70 years old. Castroville Elementary and Prunedale Elementary were built in 1948 and 1949, respectively. Previously, Superintendent Matt Turkie said the district can’t make facilities improvements without a bond.
“I see a lot of community support for the bond,” Turkie says, noting some people who spoke during the board meeting showed interest in advocating for it.
For several weeks, the district offered tours on its campuses so people could see the aging facilities. “It was eye-opening. I went home and apologized to my grandson,” Carol Murray told the board, noting her grandson would wait until getting home to use the bathroom.
"Classrooms that are safe for students to be in is on the ground level. It's the first step in making sure that our kids can sit down and try to learn at our schools," Eric Stover told the board.
Murray, who is part of NMC Voices 4 Change, an active group of parents and guardians from NMCUSD, said the group would advocate for the bond measure. “We will start campaigning as soon as we get you guys to vote this in.”
The measure needs 55 percent to pass.
Locally, all measures failed during the June primaries. None of them was a school district bond measure.