A Look Back at San Leandro School District's 1997 Measure A

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New Jefferson Elementary School on date of its dedication, SanJune 2, 2005. 

San Leandro is a safer and more prosperous city than it was 20 years ago because we have invested wisely in our local public schools. Some persons disagree and assert, without offering any evidence, that all money spent from the bond measures on San Leandro schools has been wasted. I want to show how baseless these claims are by focusing on the very first - or at least first contemporary - school bond measure passed in San Leandro. This was Measure A, a $53 million bond, approved by the voters in 1997. The bond was issued in a series of offerings starting in 1998 and into the early 2000s (totaling $53 million), with each offering lasting 25 years for repayment. That means the Measure A bond will be paid off entirely in a few years. Student safety was the focus of the Measure A bond. The majority of the money was dedicated to seismic upgrades of our schools - necessitated by the greater knowledge of earthquake risks after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. Measure A turned out to be one of the best investments San Leandro voters have ever made. One year after San Leandro voters passed Measure A, California voters passed Proposition 1A that provided local school districts - for free - money for both new school construction and seismic upgrades to existing schools. There was one catch - Proposition 1A mandated that school districts to provide a significant match of local funds to access the state grants. Having already passed a local bond measure, San Leandro was in a perfect position to advance to the front of the line and apply for Proposition 1A funds. San Leandro obtained $34 million from the state to underwrite new school construction and to further the seismic renovations in our schools, saving local taxpayers from having to pay for this work. Thus, the $53 million of work planned under Measure A became $87 million in projects. In addition to the seismic work, Measure A funded the 1) Construction of the new Jefferson Elementary School (the old school had such extensive termite damage that building an entirely new school was less expensive than renovating it);
2) Construction of a new science building at San Leandro High School;
3) Construction of a classroom wing at John Muir Middle School;
4) Addition of playground structures to elementary schools, and
5) Addition of new kitchens at the middle schools and high school

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