$198 Million for MV Schools with Passage of Measure G

 The can now count on $198 million to flow into its coffers after community residents voted in favor of on night Tuesday.

A small and enthusiastic group of volunteers, parents, staff and district trustees gathered at to celebrate this overwhelming victory, which according to the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters unofficial election night results showed the bond measure passing by 66 percent to 34 percent with half of the 28 precincts reporting.

"At this moment I'm cautiously optimistic that the early results demonstrate that two-thirds of voters supported the bond when we only needed 55 percent of the vote," said Craig Goldman, district superintendent, who expressed the district's confidence in the passage of the measure.

"This is a city that has had a long tradition of collaboration with the school district, but we never wanted to be overly confident."

The school bond measure will generate $198 million to repair and upgrade the local schools, and cost property owners no more than $30 per $100,000 annually of assessed property value.

"There is a lot of community support for our schools and I think we can expect further great things from the Mountain View Whisman School District," said Mayor Mike Kasperzak, who stopped by the celebration after the City Council meeting. He reported that the council .

An interested construction manager, Kramer Project Development Company, also stopped by the victory party. They received the contract to assist the build out their project after their bond measure. So far they've constructed the and .

"Our primary goal is to assist districts to deliver the project envisioned by the architect in the most economically feasible way," said Rick Kramer, president.

Now that the district can count on all of this money, the next step, according to Goldman, will be to involve the resident.

"We made a commitment to the communitiy to fill everyone in on the process," he said. "Now we need to start to build a project management team."

Goldman doesn't foresee any construction to start until sometime in 2013. The district currently has 4,969 enrolled students, but they project enrollment to surpass the 5,000 student mark due to increases in the middle schools, Goldman said.

"We are going to do it right with the involvement of the community," Goldman said.

At the celebration Fiona Walter, one of the district trustees and chair of the campaign, thanked all of the volunteers.

"No one wanted titles, but everyone worked really hard," Walter said.

Among the achievements she mentioned that volunteers at had the record for the most phone calls in a single evening and that the used email to get all of their 'yeses.'

Volunteer Shannon Casey, a parent of a third grader at Landels and a sixth grader at Graham Middle School, felt that all of the hard work will be worth the effort.

"If it does pass, it's a relief," she said, "because now we are not spending all this money on facilities and instead we can use it for teachers and kids."

Correction and clarification made at 12:05 p.m.: In paragraph three the percentage was corrected to reflect that 55 and not 51 percent of the vote ws need. Also, a clarification was made after the district superintendent explained Kramer Project Development Company "an interested construction manager" and not a "the potential construction manager" as the article had originally stated.

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