See our November 2024 SF Voter Guide for a nonpartisan analysis of measures on the San Francisco ballot, for the election occurring Nov. 5, 2024. The following measure is on that ballot.
Proposition A would let the San Francisco Unified School District borrow up to $790 million to upgrade, repair and retrofit its campuses and other properties, and to build a facility that would produce high-quality meals for students.
Support
Many parent, teacher and labor groups support the bond measure, including the San Francisco Building and Construction Trades Council, San Francisco Parent Coalition and United Educators of San Francisco.
“Without the passage of Prop A, our school district will need to dip into instructional funding streams,” wrote Meredith Dodson, executive director of the San Francisco Parent Coalition, in a paid argument in favor of the measure. The nonprofit organization advocates for public school children.
Instead of compensating teachers, the money would pay “to replace deteriorating classrooms, address heating and cooling issues, make seismic improvements and upgrade outdate kitchens and cafeterias,” Dodson wrote.
Cost
If voters pass Proposition A, the district may sell general obligation bonds to investors and use the funds for school district improvements. The district would repay bondholders, with interest.
Proposition A would be the district’s largest bond measure in two decades. If all bonds were issued and sold, the district would ultimately repay bondholders an estimated $1.3 billion, according to an analysis by the city controller. The district would cover that cost with revenue from property taxes, at a rate of $12.95 per $100,000 of assessed property value.
But that would not cause a net increase in real estate taxes. Instead, the taxes associated with this bond would replace other taxes that would expire after investors were fully repaid for a previous bond measure.
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Opposition
The Libertarian Party of San Francisco wrote the official argument against Proposition A, which advocates letting property taxes return to prior, lower levels instead of staying the same. The party said the district should “learn to responsibly live within a budget” rather than rely on money from bond measures.
However, local bond measures are the “primary financing tool used by California school districts to construct and improve school facilities,” according to a statement on the school district’s website. In many school districts, including San Francisco’s, operating budgets “do not have sufficient funds” to cover major renovations, the statement says.
The San Francisco Apartment Association, which represents landlords and property owners, also opposes Proposition A, arguing that the district shouldn’t be trusted with this money after its previous handling of bond revenue. In 2016, voters approved a $744 million bond for the district, which “did not publish audited financial statements for its bond program for years and even refused to convene a legally required bond oversight committee,” the association said in a letter urging people to vote against this year’s measure.
From 2019 to 2021, that oversight committee “had a lapse in membership and meetings,” said school district spokesperson Laura Dudnick. That was partly due to vacancies on the committee and its support staff, as well as challenges filling those positions during the pandemic, Dudnick said. In 2021, the district reconvened the committee, with new leadership for the program managing the expenditures of the 2016 bond revenue. Since then, the committee has met regularly and the program’s staff have caught up on financial and other reports, which are available online.
What it would do
Proposition A would fund school modernization and basic upgrades, including improvements to bathrooms, electrical systems, roofing and windows.
The ballot measure’s language does not specify what projects it would pay for or their estimated costs, unlike the 2016 bond measure. If voters pass Proposition A in November, then by early 2025 the district will announce the sites that the bond revenue would fund, according to the district’s website.
Some details about the bond’s target projects surfaced at a May meeting of the Board of Education, which manages and crafts policy for the district. Licinia Iberri, bond program manager, explained that money from Proposition A would fund continued modernization of three schools and support major renovations at a large high school, including safety upgrades and better access for people with physical disabilities. The district has not decided whether the target high school will be Balboa High, Galileo Academy of Science & Technology, International High or Mission High.
The measure would also fund construction of a $255 million food hub, Iberri said, to provide fresh meals and locally grown produce to all students in the district. And all schools would get enhanced security systems.
Proposition A includes restrictions and oversight mechanisms. Funds could not be used to pay for teacher salaries or administrative costs, other than the wages of staffers who worked on the bond project. The Board of Education and an independent citizens’ oversight committee would audit bond revenue expenditures annually.
Campaign Finance
As of Oct. 7, the “Yes on Prop A” campaign committee had raised $266,000, according to data from the San Francisco Ethics Commission. The vast majority of that money came from Phil Halperin, president of the California-based Silver Giving Foundation, a grant-giving organization that funds educational opportunities for children.
No group opposing Proposition A had reported fundraising activity to the city.
History and context
The state funds school districts largely based on student enrollment, which has been declining for years in San Francisco, causing an ongoing budget crisis. The district faces the risk of a state takeover, which would entail filing for bankruptcy and possibly replacing leadership with state-appointed officials in exchange for a loan. In an effort to reduce its expenses and avoid that outcome, the district will close or merge campuses, which it is expected to identify this year.
Schools slated to close will not receive bond funds, Iberri said at the May meeting.
Votes needed to pass
As a local bond measure, Proposition A requires at least 55% “yes” votes to pass.
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