SMUHSD Superintendent Sam Johnson knowingly withheld information from the public when the SMUHSD put forth the $298 million Measure M construction bond. Speaking at a BHS faculty meeting, Johnson stated that a pollster, paid by the district, did not include the district's debt problems when conducting the poll. The pollster (without the debt information) indicated that the public would support $298 million in construction projects.
Johnson stated that he believed that he should build what the public wanted, even though the public was not informed about the $73 million construction cost overruns which was placed upon the district's $3.5 million budget shortfall.
Even though the excessive $73 million Certificates of Participation debt was known at the time to poll was conducted, a decision was made to suppress this information from the public and the poll as it would have diminished the public's willingness to support a new bond. If the public has known about the debt, it most likely would not have supported the bond.
The fear of public rejection was also the reason why the $73 million in construction debt was not included as an item in the $298 million Measure M bond. Once again, the SMUHSD believed that if the public knew about the debt, they would not support the new bond. The district has twice suppressed this debt information from the public, onee when the poll was taken and again in the actual bond itself.
The SMUHSD is now $80 million in debt through consolidation loans. It is reported that the district will have to issue more COP debt in order to clean up the arsenic at Burlingame High School.
It has also become public knowledge that the district had full knowledge of its $73 million debt at the time of the implementation of the 7 period day, $3.5 budget shortfall, and staff lay-offs, but decided not to put the information into the public area.
– Written by JC
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