Monterey Peninsula Unified is working to pass a $340 million bond that would help improve school facilities and build staff housing in an effort to improve its teacher retention rate.
MONTEREY >> The November ballot will be a little bit longer now that the Monterey Peninsula Unified School District’s board voted to put up a $340 million bond intended for staff housing and facilities upgrades.
The district considered a similar, albeit $280 million cheaper, bond in 2020 which the board voted against. All of the schools in the district are over 60 years old, so repairs and updates have always been on the agenda. Staff housing has also been on the district’s radar for years, as each year it loses around 100 teachers or 20% of its workforce, according to Superintendent PK Diffenbaugh.
“We’ve seen that there’s been very little housing that’s been built for regular people and I think it’s time to take action,” he said. “I think that led to the board wanting to put this before the voters and ask the voters for significant investment in our schools.”
If passed, the below-market rate housing would consist of 60-80 units. The district already owns several sites it’s looking at that could hold the housing. Rent prices would be structured so that individuals don’t pay any more than 30% of their paycheck on rent.
Diffenbaugh said in his 11 years with the district, there has never been a year where high turnover rate hasn’t been an issue.
“Some years are better than others, but the reality is the cost of living on the Monterey Peninsula… is among the highest in the whole country,” he said. “It’s virtually impossible to be a young family on the Peninsula or a young person without really struggling to survive.”
Monterey Peninsula Unified mainly serves community members in Monterey, Seaside and Marina, all of which have a higher cost of living than the national average, according to the Economic Research Institute. Cost of living in Monterey is 52% higher than the national average, Seaside is 34% higher than the average and Marina is 31% above.
“It’s just gotten worse and worse and we need to be part of the solution,” said Diffenbaugh. “This is a challenge that’s going to require all of us to make sacrifices.” The bond would cost around $50 per $100,000 of assessed property value.
“If you look at property values around the state and the country, one of the greatest things you can do to increase your property values is to have great schools around you,” said Diffenbaugh.
The district has had success passing bonds in the past, with Measure P in 2010 and most recently Measure I in 2018, totaling up to around $323 million for facilities upgrades.
“The community has seen the investment of Measure P and Measure I and we’ve received overwhelmingly positive feedback… the community is saying ‘keep going, this is what our kids deserve and we want to continue to invest in our schools.’”
The measures have been used for parking lot improvements, electric and heating replacement, classroom modernization, playground equipment and more. According to Diffenbaugh, the new measure would go toward updating science labs, replacing windows to be energy efficient and investing in science, technology, engineering and mathematics learning.
The state legislature recently passed a measure to put a $10 billion school facilities bond on the November ballot that would allocate money for these kinds of repairs, but district officials on the Peninsula have said it will still be difficult to secure that funding.
“We have a significant amount of maintenance and investment that’s been deferred,” said Diffenbaugh. “So while we’ve made significant progress on many of our campuses, all of them require more investment.”
The district conducted a survey with likely voters, which showed around 70% of voters would approve the measure. “We feel confident that there’s support in the community for this, but we’re not taking anything for granted,” he said.
With the newest school in the 23-campus district built in 1960, the goal is “continued investment in our facilities to bring them up to 21st century standards,” according to Diffenbaugh. “Our children deserve to learn in spaces that are … reflective of the coming century.”