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Superintendent Collins continues
to fight for Alpine high school
By Lori Bledsoe
The Alpine Sun
EL CAJON — The Grossmont Union High
School District’s superintendent, Robert Collins, convened with
the San Diego East County Chamber of Commerce to, once again,
plug the upcoming bond issue that will be placed on this year’s
ballot. The new bond, Proposition U, is intended to fulfill the
promises made by Proposition H, as well as add a Career
Technical Education program, and create parity in the district.
The scope of this project includes the completion of
all of the Prop H modernization and joint use projects. At the
meeting Superintendent Collins would not say that Prop H was not
adequate, instead he praised the accomplishments made with that
bond. He reiterated that it was just not enough.
This new bond is focused on bringing the aging school
district to an optimum state, with renovations that will enhance
the educational environment with new technological advances.
Superintendent Collins recognizes not only the campuses that are
crumbling, but the Career Tech facilities as well.
Collins plans to create 30 career tech facilities
within the Grossmont district; three at each school site. These
trade courses will allow students to once again learn skills in
engineering and shop; classes which have been largely cut from
current school programs.
“I think we’re going to see drop-out and transfer rates
getting lower as we offer more quality programs for students,”
said Collins during a radio interview on Alpine’s Lite 107.9,
last week. “We need to be competitive, we have to bring back
those good programs that are going to attract students, and
ultimately bring the district more money.”
He wants to implement a program that works hand in hand
with the community to ready each student for the career and
college opportunities of the future. With $417 million in bond
funds and $50 million in state matching funds, Collins believes
that he can move GUHSD to a new level of greatness.
“My decision in bringing forward this bond is to bring
everyone in the district along,” Collins said. “We have a whole
range of issues and problems that need to be addressed.”
He pointed to estimates, which state that at current
rates, it would cost approximately $1 billion to get GUHSD back
in working order. This includes renovations and construction at
existing schools, as well as the construction of a school in the
Alpine area.
“I believe we’re on a tight, tight timeline right now,”
he said. “The longer we wait, the cost becomes prohibitive.
Sooner or later we’re going to have to repair these old schools;
and sooner or later we’re going to have to build a school in
Alpine.”
Prop H did more for the district than just provide
funds to begin the long and arduous task of renovations. It
helped to train the district in what is needed to really utilize
construction funds to their fullest. With Proposition H in
place, along with an existing project management firm,
Gafcon/Harris Program Management Team, an experienced Facilities
Director and a strong Community Bond Oversight Committee,
Collins feels confident that if Prop U passes, they will be able
to proceed with the work at hand with little or no difficulty.
When questioned about a high school in the Alpine area,
Collins replied that he believes that a high school is truly
needed in this area. His idea, as he conveyed it at the meeting,
is to plan on building a school for 2,000 students, beginning
with facilities that will house approximately 1,600 students and
building out as needed. He said that he was concerned about
students having to travel over 20 miles of mountain roads just
to attend school.
“My commitment, and I think I’ve made it clear, it to
be able to build this school in Alpine,” Collins said. “It’s
profitable to build a school here, we need a school here, and
honestly, no school here could really start to damage this local
economy.”
Many of the attendees at the meeting supported the
upcoming bond measure but a few did not. One attendee said that
he had supported the district in the last bond measure but was
very disappointed with the outcome, and he was not willing to
support them with any more of his tax dollars. He said that he
had become one of those voters that was just going to say no to
any more taxes.
In an e-mail that was sent from Doug Deane, he states
that it would be very beneficial for a Grossmont high school to
be located in Alpine, however if the bond measure fails, there
may be no other choice than to seek to create an Alpine Unified
School District which would have its own high school.
Deputy Superintendent Scott Patterson reminded everyone
that the taxes that would be levied would equal $27.90 per
$100,000 of assessed property value. Patterson emphasized that
the assessed value and the market value are two different things
on a property. He said that most people in the district would
only see an increase of about $60 on their annual bill for the
next 25 years. This is in addition to the Proposition H bond
measure that is currently being paid on, that equals $27.95 per
$100,000 of assessed value on property taxes.
The District has submitted a debt service schedule
within the bond support application. The schedule states the
estimated amount of interest to be paid over the life of the
bonds totals approximately $537.4 million. The total amount of
principal and interest will total approximately $953.8 million.
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