Lancaster School Trustees to Again Put $47-Million Measure on Ballot

The cash-hungry Lancaster School District, whose voters narrowly rejected a $47-million school bond measure in April, has decided to try again next year.

The district’s trustees voted Tuesday night to hold a special election March 5 on virtually the same proposition.

The new measure would also authorize $47 million in bonds. School Supt. David Alvarez said the resulting property tax increase might be somewhat smaller than in the earlier version.

Alvarez said the bond measure, which needs two-thirds voter approval, would enable the district to build three elementary and two middle schools during the coming decade. Enrollment is about 6% above last year’s.

“I think we need to go back to voters again because the need is greater now than it was earlier this year,” Alvarez said. The money would help move pupils from portable classrooms to school buildings. A third of the district’s students are in portables.

The district’s Measure A on the April 10 ballot this year won 60% of the votes--falling short of two-thirds by 570 votes.

It would have cost the owner of a house assessed at $150,000 about $77 a year in added property taxes. Alvarez said the district’s financial consultants believe that they can have the same size measure next year with a smaller tax burden because of growth in the district.

District officials this time are trying a different and potentially costly strategy by deciding to call a special election for their measure, meaning that it alone will appear on the ballot, instead of consolidating it with the area’s general municipal elections as occurred in the spring.

The special election will cost the district far more in election expenses--tens of thousands of dollars.

But the election will attract fewer voters, more of whom school officials hope will back the measure.