We addressed the bevy of local school bonds two and a half years ago here. The DJ is reporting on the next appeal to local voters for bond money to maintain and upgrade school infrastructure. The new classrooms at McKinley are moving right along and the new bonds would go towards “re-piping” and WiFi upgrades.

The Burlingame School District Board of Trustees voted to increase the amount sought through a bond measure to $100 million from a previously approved $89 million, which is intended to be up for voter approval in November.

Trustees previously approved moving forward to seek $89 million through a bond measure but the item was brought back for discussion to see if asking for just a bit more was worthwhile. The increase was approved unanimously. 

The district passed its most recent bond, worth $97 million, in March 2020. The bond measure was a $25 tax per $100,000 of assessed property value. While Trustee Doug Brown said there isn’t a significant material difference between $89 million and $100 million for taxpayers, and “there wasn’t any red flags or yellow flags about increasing it,” he said the board should still carefully weigh the ask.

The Board needs to formally vote by August on putting this on the November ballot. The same tax fatigue that was in place two and a half years ago is still with us in this age of “affordability” as noted recently here. It’s going to take some strong community outreach to push this on over the finish line especially if big transit and sales taxes are on the ballot as well.