LOS ANGELES—Get your ballots ready. Voting day is just around the corner and there are plenty of important decisions to make. While Build Better L.A. is the development initiative that is getting most of the attention, there is also an educational development measure that will share the ballot and is equally as important. Proposition 51, as it is called, is a $9 billion public school bonds initiative that could help realize our educational masterplan. To find out more about the proposition and the get a professional opinion, we sat down with Rick Fochtman, SVP at Bernards, a contractor with plenty of experience building school facilities. Fochtman gives us his take on the measure in an exclusive interview.
GlobeSt.com: What is your take, as a professional in the K-14 market, on Prop 51?
Rick Fochtman: Prop 51 is intended to provide $3 billion for the construction of new school facilities, $500 million for providing school facilities for charter schools, $3 billion for the modernization of school facilities, $500 million for providing facilities for career technical education programs, and $2 billion for acquiring, constructing, renovating, and equipping community college facilities.
In the almost 20 years that I've been with Bernards, there have been a number of State of California propositions that asked the voters to determine if the State should provide funding to design and either build new facilities or modernize existing facilities and all have been a great benefit to our communities and the California economy as a whole. The State funds, provided from propositions like Prop 51, enable California public school districts to build and/or modernize more facilities than if the district had to rely solely on its local voter base. This increased funding helps ensure that our local communities meet the needs of California's ever expanding student population and provides optimal, state-of-the-art learning environments. The way this works is the K-14 districts determine their specific facility needs, determine the amount of funding to be applied from the district's available funding (from local bond measures, developer fees, etc.), and then apply for matching State funding from propositions like Prop 51 for the design and construction of the new or modernized. Without available State funding, California public school districts, especially those in less affluent communities, have less ability to provide new and modernized facilities for their students and, therefore, to keep pace with students outside of California.
GlobeSt.com: What are the benefits of CA K-14 bond measures and propositions, such as Prop 51?
Fochtman: The benefits of CA K-14 school bond measures and propositions like Prop 51 are the provision of healthy, modern and technologically advanced academic, sports and social facilities (such as cafeterias and multi-purpose rooms). These environments provide distinct advantages for students as they spend a large amount of their youth receiving instruction in these facilities.
GlobeSt.com: Please describe your company's K-14 facility experience (i.e. what types of facilities)? What are some of Bernards more notable K-14 projects?
Fochtman: Bernards has been building new California schools, as well as modernizing existing K-14 facilities, for over 40 years helping 50 local Districts satisfy their facility needs. We have an abundance of experience working with the DSA, which enables us to efficiently and effectively build the projects permitted by that office. This includes work for Districts large and small including over 20 schools for LAUSD, which is the 3rd largest public school district in the nation, and numerous new and modernization school projects across southern and Central California, in urban, suburban and rural areas. It's always interesting to note how school facilities are designed to accommodate particular geographic conditions and accommodate the particular learning needs of the community where they are located. For example, a school in the central valley region of California may have an agricultural and farm animal program that require facilities far different than districts located in a dense urban environment.
GlobeSt.com: How will the passage or failure of Prop 51 affect the ability for CA school districts to build new facilities or modernize their existing facilities?
Fochtman: It's quite simple, the passage of Prop 51 will provide the ability for school districts to realize more of their educational and physical master plans. Without the funding available by the passage of Prop 51, public California school districts can't receive matching funds for their facility needs. Rather, they must solely rely on funding available from local bond measures and developer fees. Less funding means few new and modernized school facilities.
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Kelsi Maree Borland
