Fresno Unified School District uses a substantial amount of local funding, which comes from taxpayer-supported bond measures, to pay for new schools and upgrades.
However, the district’s projects have also been partly underwritten by state funding for projects built with money from Measures K, Q, X, and M dating to 2001.
District information on its website and through the communications department shows that the district has collected $267,305,248 in state and federal funding for the bond measures totaling $1,029,000,000. One dollar out of every $5 spent by the district on facilities construction and upgrades came from nonlocal funding.
Sometimes it takes a while for state funding to arrive. For example, the district’s Addicott modernization project was funded by the $280 million Measure Q, which voters approved in 2010, district spokeswoman Nikki Henry said. The project was completed in July 2016 and the funding application filed in February 2019. It was approved for funding in November 2022, and the district received the funds in January 2023, she said — 6½ years after the project was completed.
Matching funds diminished after the state completed allocating money from its last statewide proposition, Proposition 51, that voters approved in 2016, she said.
Prop. 51 raised $9 billion for schools and community college facilities. A $15 billion bond measure, Proposition 13, failed in 2020. The November ballot contains Proposition 2, which would provide $10 billion in state funds for schools’ and community colleges’ facilities improvements.
Eagerness to get a share of funding from Prop. 2, which requires only a majority vote, has impelled many school and community college districts around the state — including 12 in Fresno County alone — to put bond measures on the Nov. 5 ballot.
Two of the largest locally are State Center Community College District’s $698 million Measure Q and Fresno Unified’s $500 million Measure H.
Local bond measures require 55% approval by voters.
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Matching Funds Varied
According to Fresno Unified’s records, the district received $160,957,225 in state funding for Measure K projects. Measure K was $199 million in bonds and was approved by voter in 2001. The district has received $4,979,747 in federal funding and $79,396,388 in state funding for Measure Q projects. Measure Q bonds totaled $280 million and were approved by voters in 2010.
Measure Q projects benefitted from the availability of state matches through Props. 1D and 51, Henry said.
Measure X, a $225 million bond measure that voters approved in 2016, has yielded $7,988,179 in state funding, and Measure M, the $325 million bond measure approved by voters in 2020, has garnered $13,983,709 in state funding.
Fresno Unified has applied for $35 million in reimbursement, including $25 million for Measure X projects, and $6 million in applications for Measure M projects, but the funding reimbursements are on hold due to insufficient funds, Henry said.
Although the district applies for state funding for its new construction and modernization projects, not all projects are eligible for funding, she said.
Proposition 1D, a $10.416 billion measure for school facilities that voters approved in 2006, included $1 billion for overcrowding relief, and 41% of the funding Fresno Unified received through Prop. 1D funds were for such projects, she said. But later state propositions did not include that category, she said.
The fall-off in state funding to the district is the result of the depletion in funds, especially after the defeat of Prop. 13 in 2020, Henry said.
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