{"id":503371,"date":"2026-10-21T21:32:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-21T21:32:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/503371\/"},"modified":"2026-10-21T21:32:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-21T21:32:10","slug":"what-to-know-about-sacramento-area-school-bonds-on-the-ballot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/503371\/","title":{"rendered":"What to know about Sacramento area school bonds on the ballot"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Abridged version:<\/p>\n

Voters in parts of Placer, Yolo and Sacramento counties will decide this fall on a handful of school bond measures. Funding from the bonds goes strictly toward facility-related expenses.<\/p>\n

School officials from Rocklin to Winters say they need the money to repair things like leaky roofs or upgrade classrooms for more modern learning environments.<\/p>\n

The Los Rios Community College District is also asking for a $1.1 billion bond, and two school districts are proposing parcel taxes, which are distinct from bond measures.<\/p>\n

Leaky roofs and aged plumbing systems. Decades-old classrooms that don\u2019t fit modern courses. Portable buildings still keeping space for more permanent structures.<\/p>\n

School districts across the Sacramento region share many of the same to-do list items. The sum cost of addressing all needed repairs and renovations can land in the nine- to 10-figure ballpark.<\/p>\n

So, this November, officials from a handful of districts are turning to voters for assistance.<\/p>\n

There are six school bond measures on the ballots<\/a> for parts of Sacramento, Placer and Yolo counties. One of those is a $1.1 billion proposal<\/a> from the Los Rios Community College District. (Parcel taxes, which Sacramento City Unified<\/a> and Tahoe-Truckee Unified<\/a> have each proposed this year, are distinct.)<\/p>\n

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Approval for these measures allows education leaders to take out a loan that would then be repaid by property tax revenue. Bond funds are strictly required to go toward facility-related expenses like upgrading the HVAC system, replacing dilapidated fencing or constructing new school buildings.<\/p>\n

Except, most districts are past the point of needing new campuses, said Kevin Gordon, president of the consulting group Capitol Advisers. With enrollment declining statewide, including in much of the Sacramento region, attention is mostly on fixing up what they already have.<\/p>\n

Up and down California, school bond measures are commonplace<\/a> and tend to fare well, especially since the turn of the century when the threshold for approval dropped from two-thirds to 55%.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no funding allotted to school districts specifically for facilities. The state frequently offers a matching amount for districts that first put up their own local funding. But the cost of building, repairing and maintaining campuses tends to outweigh what\u2019s available in the budget \u2014 thus, bond measures.<\/p>\n

\"RustyA rusty window at Rocklin High School. The district is asking voters to approve Measure D, a $288 million bond measure to fund school repairs and upgrades. (Rocklin Unified School District)<\/p>\n

\u2018Problems will only become more pressing\u2019<\/p>\n

One of the largest proposed bonds for a TK-12 school district is on the ballot in Natomas, where the school district serves nearly 17,000 students.<\/p>\n

Natomas Unified leaders are asking for $300 million in funds. It is estimated to cost homeowners $60 per $100,000 of assessed property value.<\/p>\n

Projects like fixing outdated plumbing systems, upgrading fire safety equipment and replacing portable classrooms would likely take precedence, according the ballot measure text.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe (school) Board concluded that if these needs are not addressed now, the problems will only become more pressing and expensive to fix, as facilities continue to age and construction costs continue to rise,\u201d the measure reads.<\/p>\n

Districts of varying size need similar fixes<\/p>\n

Similar priorities are on the docket for Rocklin Unified, Galt Joint Union High School District, Winters Joint Unified and Center Joint Unified, which straddles Sacramento and Placer counties.<\/p>\n

Leaders from each district point to aging facilities across their elementary, middle and high school campuses.<\/p>\n

In Rocklin Unified, a district of about 12,000 students, most schools are more than 20 years old. Two sites have been around for more than 60 years. Officials there are looking for $288 million in funds to make repairs and modernize classrooms. It would cost taxpayers $59 per $100,000 of home value.<\/p>\n

Education officials in Galt and Winters are overseeing fewer schools and asking for relatively smaller bond amounts. Both districts serve roughly 2,000 students.<\/p>\n

The proposed measure in Winters is $29 million and would come out to $49 per $100,000 of assessed value. Galt leaders are aiming for $43 million, a cost of $30 per $100,000 in home value. (Galt voters approved a $27 million bond for their elementary school district, a separate entity, in 2024.)<\/p>\n

\"HVAC\"An aging HVAC system at Rocklin High School. The district is asking voters to approve Measure D, a $288 million bond measure to fund school repairs and upgrades. (Rocklin Unified School District)<\/p>\n

Center Joint Unified, which covers Antelope, Elverta and Roseville, has approximately 4,000 students currently. But the district is part of a rare contingent in California that is anticipating growth in coming years.<\/p>\n

School board members there unanimously called for a $197 million measure on this year\u2019s ballot. Homeowners would pay $60 per $100,000 in property value.<\/p>\n

Facility funding would go toward repairs as well as expanding building capacity at current campuses, according to the ballot measure. Construction on a new school is underway in Roseville using money from prior bond measures. Sierra Vista Elementary School is expected to open in 2029.<\/p>\n

The largest bond on the ballot this year belongs to the Los Rios Community College District, which is eyeing a $1.1 billion measure. Those additional funds represent about a third of the district\u2019s overall facility needs, according to staff.<\/p>\n

The project list is lengthy, touching on all four main community college campuses and most of the district\u2019s additional satellite sites. It includes fixing roofs and HVAC systems, constructing new buildings, expanding athletic facilities and more. <\/p>\n

Opponents of the measure \u2014 including some of the district\u2019s own trustees \u2014 have criticized officials for limiting it to a subdistrict<\/a>. Los Rios includes most of Sacramento and El Dorado counties, Yolo County\u2019s eastern stretch, and small slices of Placer and Solano counties.<\/p>\n

However, voting on and paying for the bond measure is restricted to Sacramento and Yolo counties.<\/p>\n

\"Meeting\"Mario Rodriguez,
\nvice chancellor, finance and administration of Los Rios Community College District, addresses the Board of Trustees on Wednesday, July 8, 2026. (Martin Christian)<\/p>\n

Careful calibration of odds<\/p>\n

Bond measures tend to come up in areas where leaders have already estimated decent odds of succeeding, said Gordon, a well-known expert in education funding.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery district has to calibrate what their chances of winning are,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The proposals are rarer in communities where voters \u2014 and school leaders themselves \u2014 tend to be more conservative and less likely to approve additional taxes. But, Gordon said, if trustees and other district leaders are fully on board, that\u2019s a good indicator of community support.<\/p>\n

In June, Rocklin Unified trustees approved putting their district\u2019s bond measure before voters. The decision was unanimous.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs someone who generally approaches government spending with caution, I do not support every tax proposal that comes along,\u201d board member Rachelle Price said. \u201cI support this school bond.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"boardRocklin Unified School District board members attend a town hall Thursday, May 28, 2026. (Tyler Bastine)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Abridged version: Voters in parts of Placer, Yolo and Sacramento counties will decide this fall on a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":503372,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[121,123,122],"class_list":["post-503371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=503371"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503371\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/503372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=503371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=503371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=503371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}