On Dec. 6, the Santa Barbara County Elections Office certified all election results in the county. I am happy to report that Measure H2016 passed with 57.29 percent of the vote. With 41,572 votes cast, 23,818 voted yes.
On behalf of the Yes on Measure H2016 Bond Committee, I want to thank the community for its support in the Santa Maria Joint Union High School District’s effort to continue improving and expanding our public high school facilities.
Passage of H2016 makes the third consecutive time the communities within the high school district boundaries supported a school bond. The previous two bonds in 2000 and 2004 resulted in building Pioneer Valley and Delta high schools, and numerous improvements and new facilities to both Santa Maria and Righetti high schools.
H2016 will provide the district an opportunity to complete the process of increasing permanent capacity of all our schools and modernizing all facilities to the highest standard of school construction in California. For that, the entire community should be immensely proud.
The process of retrofitting existing facilities or constructing new ones in California is a long and cumbersome process. Plan approval and construction requirements are the most rigorous in the country, and thus take considerable time to complete. However, the end result is a high-quality facility that will serve tens of thousands of students for decades to come.
The projects to be completed with H2016 funds are too numerous to list here, but you can view the entire list by visiting the district’s website at smjuhsd.k12.ca.us.
Again, thank you to the thousands of people who supported H2016. Your confidence in the high school district to continue improving the educational experience for all students is appreciated. Our community will be proud of what is accomplished with our hard-earned tax dollars.
This article appears in Dec 15-22, 2016.
