MPUSD is rallying its constituents to put a $213 million bond on the June 2018 ballot.

Monterey Peninsula Unified School District is home to some of the oldest schools on the Peninsula; its “newest” schools were established in the 1960s. “The bones of our schools are very old,” Superintendent PK Diffenbaugh says. He estimates fixing all of MPUSD’s aging infrastructure would cost $680 million.

To help cover that, MPUSD officials are hopeful about a $213 million bond for the June 5 election. It’s roughly one-third of what is needed, but is the maximum amount the district can ask voters to approve.

Before the MPUSD board puts the bond on the ballot, district officials are seeking reassurance that it can pass. (It requires 55 percent of the vote.) Diffenbaugh has courted nearly a dozen community groups, from the NAACP to the Monterey Bay Chamber of Commerce, as well as various Kiwanis clubs and Rotary clubs. So far, he says, the response has been positive.

An initial community poll shows 78-percent approval. “That’s across all voting demographics,” Diffenbaugh says. “Younger voters, older voters, Democrats and Republicans are seeing the need.”

Pervasive problems include outdated HVAC systems, old sewer and gas lines under schools, limited electrical outlets, and as former teacher and current Kiwanis Club president Alice Jordan points out, many decades-old portables that have become de facto permanent classrooms. “The classrooms that our kids are in now look like the ones I graduated from in 1961,” Jordan says.

The board has until March 9 to put the bond on the ballot. If it passes, property owners will be taxed $60 per $100,000 of assessed value. That means the average property owner would pay $210 annually for 30 years.