Burbank school board issues last $34M of $110M bond
About four years after voters approved Burbank Unified’s $110-million Measure S bond, the Burbank school board voted Thursday to issue the roughly $34 million remaining in the bond fund.
Expected to be sold in March, the final fund issuance follows the board’s first issuance of about $41 million in May 2013 and second of approximately $35 million in July 2015.
“That’s the last one until we go out for another bond someday,” said Larry Applebaum, school board president, shortly after board members cast their votes.
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Reached by phone on Friday, Applebaum said he expects 2023 will be an ideal time for Burbank Unified to ask voters for a new bond. That is the year when the district’s B97 bond, passed in 1997, will be paid off.
Prior to 1997, the only other bond Burbank voters passed was in the 1950s, so there were 40 years of “pent-up demands for infrastructure repairs,” Applebaum said.
The need for some of those repairs spilled into the Measure S bond, which was passed in 2013.
Over the past few years, crews have installed new heating and air-conditioning units, gas lines, fences to replace rusted ones, play equipment as well as put new asphalt on playgrounds that hadn’t had their asphalt replaced in decades.
The bond also paid for new steel-framed modular classrooms with roofs expected to last 30 years. The expense for the stucco-sided modulars — more than $30 million — was unexpected.
A few months after voters approved the bond, California school districts learned they would have to comply with a requirement for smaller class sizes in the elementary grades, and Burbank school officials were pressed to turn to Measure S funds.
Some modulars have been constructed, while others will be built this summer.
Besides the bond’s ability to pay for overdue infrastructure repairs, one of its greatest legacies has been the opportunity it gave school officials to implement new technology.
A “modified closet” was turned into a new data center, Applebaum said, with a properly cooled space to store the district’s servers, which are also protected with a fire-supression system.
The district’s students and teachers now have access to high-speed wireless Internet in almost all of the schools. Prior to the bond, Wi-Fi connectivity was spotty, at best.
Applebaum said he is proud the technology upgrades will impact students and their ability to be competitive in the world.
“As a community member, as a taxpayer, there’s a lot of pride when I look around because the campuses are starting to look good,” Applebaum said. “As a parent, the thing that excites me the most is the technology.”
On Tuesday, the school board will hold a public study session to discuss implementing more Measure S-funded technology. Applebaum said officials must decide which one-on-one devices the district should purchase for students while also considering what’s age appropriate.
They’ll also talk about which educational applications to install on the devices and how to train teachers in using them.
With the latest $34 million in bond funds already earmarked for upgrades, Applebaum said he foresees the need for a future bond to respond to the city’s potential population growth, which may follow recent increased housing development.
New classrooms at Burbank and John Burroughs high schools would be key in supporting a few more hundred students at each of those sites.
He said crews could construct a building with 18 to 21 classrooms at Burroughs where the tennis courts are now, and move the courts on top of a new parking structure, similar to the layout of the tennis courts at Burbank High.
In the meantime, school officials said they are intent to continue delivering on Measure S promises.
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Kelly Corrigan, kelly.corrigan@latimes.com
Twitter: @kellymcorrigan
