Western Placer Unified School District's looming growth spurt

Last year I wrote a column about the Western Placer Unified School District, noting that the district and the city of Lincoln were two distinct organizations, each with its own governing board and finances. Western Placer Unified School District encompasses the city landmass plus adjacent areas around Lincoln. Both agencies share space in City Hall and both use each other's facilities – parks, playgrounds and swimming pools – under a joint-use agreement that goes back many years. Lincoln is, once again, among the state's fastest growing cities. We've just passed 50,000 residents and, as reported in earlier columns, housing starts abound in all sectors of the city. More population = more students = more school facilities. The district currently has 15 campuses - eight elementary, two middle school, two high schools (including the newly-opened Twelve Bridges High School), one continuation high school, one independent study school and one farm campus - for a total of 7,200 students. Over the next two decades, Western Placer Unified School District estimates, there will be 17,280 new housing units added within its boundaries and that growth will add approximately 10,000 new students to the district. Western Placer Unified School District analyzed its current student capacity and found that 3,120 new students can be accommodated in the existing schools (specifically 1,070 in elementary schools, 550 in middle schools and 1,500 in high schools). That leaves 6,880 "seats" to be constructed by 2040, nearly doubling the current student population. That's a lot of students and it's going to require a lot of new facilities to accommodate them. Moreover, the existing facilities will need constant upgrading and repairs. My earlier column explained the school financial basics: School funding is exceptionally complex and changed dramatically with the passage of Proposition 13 in 1978. Previously, each school district set its own taxation levels but now property tax monies go up to the state and then are returned to the localities with numerous allocation formats. The primary allocation is based on average daily attendance (ADA), an outcome from a 1978 lawsuit. School facilities financing New schools are built with a combination of development impact fee monies, state funding and local bond funding (found on your tax bill as a separate charge). Looking at each of these revenue streams: * Development Impact Fees (on new construction) contributes about one-third of the funding. * The state of California contributes another one-third. * The remaining one-third needs to be raised by a vote of the people either under a parcel tax (requires 66-2/3 approval) or a general obligation bond based on assessed valuation (not market value) with a 55-percent voter approval required. Per state regulations, the maximum tax rate for school bonding is $60 per $100,000 of assessed value. District voters approved bond issues in 2014 and 2016. The district is considering going to the public in the November 2022 election cycle for another bond measure to accommodate Tier 1 projects in the amount of $185 million, covering both reconstruction and new construction projects at five existing facilities. With an average assessed valuation of $400,000 per home in the district, the tax would equate to an additional $240 per year per average home. And then there's the cost to construct new schools over the next few decades.How much? A lot: $60 million for each elementary school, $107 million for each middle school and $262 million for each high school. Total - $1.4 billion (and that's at 2022 dollars)! At build-out, it is expected that the district could have 24 school sites, serving 17,000 students. The details are all laid out in Western Placer Unified School District's website under School Facilities Master Plan, May 2022). One of the reasons our city, and surrounding areas, are growing is because parents want the Lincoln "lifestyle" for themselves and a high-value school system for their children. Mike Adell, Western Placer Unified School District's director of facilities has written that "Investing in quality schools is a smart investment. Quality schools protect property values." Whether we like it or not, Lincoln is in the bullseye of expansion into south Placer County. Western Placer Unified School District is gearing up to accommodate school growth in an orderly fashion. It will be necessary, it won't be cheap and the voters will decide. Richard Pearl is a Lincoln resident for the last 13 years. He is also the elected city treasurer. This column represents his personal, and not elected, opinions. Pearl can be reached at richardpearl.lnm@gmail.com.