Clovis school bond is trailing by 25 votes. What happens to Clovis South High if it fails?
Clovis Unified’s $400 million school bond is teetering on the edge of defeat and was 0.04 percentage points short of the required 55% voter approval threshold as of Wednesday afternoon.
The razor-thin margin put Measure A just 25 votes shy of voter approval, though it’s too close to say whether the bond will ultimately pass or fail. According to the Fresno County Clerk, about 48.1% of votes have been counted as of Wednesday, with the next ballot update expected before 5 p.m. Thursday.
Clovis Unified leaders are anxiously awaiting the outcome of Measure A because they say it’s needed to finish construction of the district’s sixth comprehensive high school — Clovis South High.
Officials have long planned to build a sprawling educational center on Highland Avenue near McKinley Avenue to house a new high school and middle school amid growing student enrollment.
The project has an estimated cost of $510 million and district officials are banking on voters’ approval of Measure A to fund the remaining $180 million needed to finish construction.
Here’s what we know about Clovis Unified’s contingency plans if the school bond fails.
What would Measure A’s defeat mean for Clovis South High?
Clovis Unified leaders say they won’t have enough money to finish building Clovis South High School, as envisioned, without the incoming new bond.
If completed, the Terry Bradley Educational Center would include Clovis South High as well as a new middle school, Sanchez Intermediate, set to open in the 2025-26 school year.
With inflation and rising construction costs, the district is running out of money to finish the academic buildings for the new high school and some of the educational center’s shared facilities, according to district officials.
The district initially estimated the project would cost $250 million, though the projected cost to finish construction has risen noticeably since 2020.
Clovis Unified spokesperson Kelly Avants said building costs have escalated beyond “anything that we have seen in modern history.”
Denver Stairs, the assistant superintendent who leads the district’s facilities team, said Clovis Unified has spent $330 million on construction, so far.
“The project is broken up into seven increments, and we have enough bond money from our last bond to get 100% through Increment 5,” Stairs said.
That means the district has enough funds to build a main office, two academic buildings, a visual and performing arts building, a snack bar and cafeteria, sports fields and two swimming pools, Stairs said.
“We have funds to fully build out the intermediate school,” Stairs said. “Where we would run out of funds is to finish the academic buildings for the high school, and then some of the support facilities that are going to be available to the whole district that would sit on that campus.”
How would Measure A’s defeat impact students?
The Terry Bradley Educational Center is set to open in August 2025 starting with students from grades 7, 8, and 9, similar to how the district opened Clovis North High School.
The high school would gradually open to students in grades 10 through 12 in ensuing years if it secures the bond funds to finish construction, according to the district’s plan.
Measure A’s defeat would upend the district’s plan, and officials would have to determine how it would accommodate students who would otherwise be attending Clovis South High.
Avants said the district’s phased enrollment expansion over four years gives Clovis Unified leaders time to figure out which schools students in the new Clovis South area would attend. It’s unclear how many students would be impacted.
“If we don’t pass this bond, we will have to back to the drawing board to determine how will we be able to use a facility that is not built out for its intended purpose,” Stairs said.
Why is the Measure A vote so close?
Voters in Clovis Unified have historically said “yes” to school bonds, and school leaders say that support has helped maintain quality school facilities.
Yet the latest ballot returns show Measure A narrowly short of the voter approval threshold, and the reasons why are unclear.
Voters in 2020 rejected a school bond that would have raised property taxes. Measure A would not change the existing tax rate of $155 per $100,000 of assessed property value because it’s a continuation of an existing bond.
Measure A also did not have a formal opposition campaign though Clovis Unified, like many other California school districts with bonds on the ballot, may be grappling with voter fatigue.
Voters in the state have been rejecting a higher percentage of school bond measures in recent years. School officials say bonds are a fundamental source of facilities and capital funding, and growing districts like Clovis Unified rely on local voters to pass bonds that pay for the construction of new campuses.
Clovis Unified Superintendent Corrine Folmer said in a statement Wednesday morning she was “hopeful that late voting returns will push us over the 55% needed for success because it is critical for our community’s future.”
“If however, in the end, voters tell us that now is not the time for this investment in our kids, then we will go back to the drawing board to find solutions to overcrowding in the southern areas of our district — solutions that would not be able to rely on a new high school in that area,” Folmer said.
What else would Measure A fund?
Other projects earmarked for Measure A funds include flooring and roof replacement, LED lighting upgrades, audio and video technology improvements. Clovis Unified is also planning to consolidate window glass in schools across the district.
“We want to install a safety film that goes over the top of the glass, so it goes both the inside and the outside of our existing windows, and it eliminates the ability for the glass to shatter and prolongs the time to gain access by breaking that window,” said Stairs.
This story was originally published November 6, 2024 at 4:01 PM.
