Last month, the Cloverdale Unified School District sold the last set of bonds related to Measure H, the general obligation bond measure that was approved by Cloverdale voters in November 2018.
Measure H authorized the sale of $46 million of bonds to go toward improving school facilities, modernizing classrooms and replacing deteriorating plumbing, among other things. The bond needed 55% of ‘yes’ votes to pass, and received 60.3% of yes votes.
Since it passed, Measure H funds have been used to construct a new track and field at Cloverdale High School, and are in the process of being used to fund a new classroom at Jefferson Elementary and a new gymnasium at Washington School.
According to an announcement from the school district, “At the time of the election, it was estimated that the total repayment costs of both principal and interest would be $95.7 million. After having sold its first two bonds in 2019 for $31 million and third series of bonds in October 2020 for $15 million, the actual total repayment cost for the Measure H Bond Election is $84 million, a difference of $11.6 million.”
The district was able to take advantage of strong growth in its tax base and of some of the lowest interest rates in history for this most recent bond sale, which will allow it to continue improving facilities for students and finish school projects several years earlier than originally planned.
“Having just joined the district, I am amazed at how supportive our community is to our schools. It’s exciting to see the improvements to our facilities and know that we can continue those improvements with this recent bond sale,” said Cloverdale Superintendent Betha MacClain in a statement.
Added Board President Jacque Garrison, “Local voters were very generous to the district by approving Measure H. We always try to be responsible stewards of the taxpayers’ dollars and by selling now, we were able to lock in low rates and further improve our educational programs. We thank the community for their trust in us.”
