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.