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Sweetwater's gathering storm

There are several very serious problems with the school district borrowing money from the Mello-Roos Funds. 1. School over-crowding. These funds were intended to be spent on school infrastructure, capital construction, and certain types of ongoing maintenance. Because SUHSD has chosen these funds as a lending source, the incentive to build any new school in the Otay Ranch/Eastlake area is non-existant. At a parent meeting held at ELH several months ago, Rick Knott said the Mello-Roos Funds held approx. $160,000,000.00 (160 million). The cost of a sorely needed new high school would cost $125-$135 million, leaving an approximate balance of $25-35 million. $25-$35 million is just not enough to cover the costs of the day to day needs of SUHSD. The convenience of having a "borrowing pool" of money outweighs the needs of an overcrowed community. 2. Rick Knott, at that same meeting said that the current Mello-Roos funds were currently being invested and earning approximately 0.5% interest. He also said when the district borrows money from the M-R Funds they pay interest on the money borrowed. The rate of interest is also in the 0.5 to 0.6% rate. However, any delays in construction on the sorely needed high school are raising the total costs of the construction at a % rate far in excess of the 0.5% this money is currently earning. The construction costs of this high school NOW will be significantly lower than any meager interest we would earn on the investment in a financial instution or loan to SUHSD. What this tells us it that there will be MORE money in the M-R Funds five years from now if we move forward on this construction sooner rather than later. 3. The ready availability of the M-R funds are fueling a sense of monetary largess at SUHSD. Decisions that would have never been made had these funds not been available as a borrowing pool are continuing to be made at an alarming rate, with no thought to the consequences. Does anyone really think SUHSD would have bought all those iPads if M-R funds weren't there to be tapped? I use the iPads only as a single example, there are far too many others to list in my reply. The point is, these iPads were at the expense of not just the M-R monies, but also contributes to the overcrowding at all the schools in the east portion of the district.
— January 31, 2013 11:20 a.m.

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4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
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