Fresno Unified’s Measure M bond has enough votes to pass in latest ballot update
Schools across the Fresno Unified School District will benefit from $325 million in improvements in the coming years following the apparent approval by voters of Measure M, a bond measure on the March 3 primary ballot.
The situation is different, however, for two neighboring school districts in the Fresno area. Clovis Unified School District voters rejected Measure A, a $408 million bond measure. And in the Central Unified School District, Measure C is teetering on the edge between passage and failure, a mere three-tenths of a percentage point shy of the 55% majority it needs with the prospect of more ballots left to count.
The most recent update of election results issued Friday afternoon by the Fresno County Clerk’s Office estimates that about 1,200 mail-in, provisional and conditional ballots remain to be counted across the entire county. It’s not known how many of those are from any particular school district:
For Fresno Unified, the current margin of votes in favor of passage is safe even in the unlikely event that all 1,200 of those votes went against Measure M. As of Friday, it was passing with 59.5% of the votes, well above the 55% threshold for approval.
In the Clovis Unified School District, Measure A cannot gain enough votes to make up its deficit even if all of the county’s remaining uncounted ballots tilted in its favor. A slight majority of voters in the district, 50.6%, said no to the measure.
Central Unified’s Measure C currently has 54.7% approval, but it needs 55% to pass. With fewer than 15,000 votes counted thus far in the district, its fate appears to depend on how many of the county’s uncounted ballots are from within the district, and how many of those votes favor its passage.
The latest update from County Clerk Brandi Orth came Friday afternoon; the next one is expected Wednesday afternoon, March 18. That could be the last round of unofficial results before the county conducts a canvass and certifies the election. Orth said she anticipates certifying the election results on April 2.
Measure M , Fresno Unified’s $325 bond measure for school improvements, is earmarked for replacing portable classrooms with permanent facilities, new infrastructure, plumbing, electricity, roofs, and concrete.
“Our overarching sentiment is just one of great gratitude,” Fresno Unified Superintendent Bob Nelson said in response to the results. “This bond initiative will allow us to extend the good work we’re doing for behalf of our students. … We called it ‘Measure M’ because it’s really about modernizing our existing facilities.”
Nelson added that he was born in 1969, “and two-thirds of our buildings are older than me.”
Carol Mills, a school board member representing the Fresno High School neighborhood, said one of the features at that school will be a new cafeteria. “Our current cafeteria dates to the 1920s,” she said. “It’s time for an improvement and an upgrade.”
At Hoover High School, area trustee Claudia Cazares said improvements will include building permanent classrooms to replace portables on the campus. She added her thanks to voters for Measure M’s passage.
“Our children are really that valuable in this community that in this environment when many of the bonds are not passing, our Fresno voters showed our kids that we care,” Cazares said. For that we are eternally blessed.”
Fresno Unified’s financial officer, Ruthie Quinto, said this is the third consecutive bond measure that has been approved by voters in the district.
Falling short in Clovis
The Clovis Unified School District’s effort to pass Measure A, a $408 million bond measure to update and improve 48 of its existing schools and build another new school and education center, have fallen short of the mark. As of Friday afternoon’s results, not only did Measure C fall short of the 55% voter approval needed to pass, a majority of voters rejected the measure. It’s the first time in at least 25 years that voters turned down a Clovis Unified bond measure.
Central’s bond hangs in balance
It’s still not known if voters in the Central Unified School District passed or rejected Measure C, a proposed $120 million bond measure for construction of a high school and build a new elementary school, as well as make improvements to 22 other schools. The district covers part of northwest Fresno and a rural area west of the city.
As of Friday, Measure C had 8,017 “yes” votes to 6,634 “no” votes – a margin of more than 1,380 votes. But that’s not yet enough to put the measure over the top, and its fate may hinge on ballots still to be processed and counted.
For school bonds elsewhere around Fresno County, Friday’s vote update showed:
- Parlier Unified’s $11 million Measure D was passing with 62.9% of votes counted so far.
- Measure E, a $17 million bond measure for the Kingsburg Joint Union High School District that includes parts of Fresno, Kings and Tulare counties, was at 52.6% approval, falling short of the 55% needed to pass.
- Washington Unified School District’s Measure H, a $46 million bond, was short of the 55% needed to pass. As of Friday, it had 53.6% of the votes counted to date.
This story was originally published March 13, 2020 at 9:33 AM.
