The Amador County Unified School District is putting all cities and the county on notice- when you look at future developments don’t forget the schools. At last week’s Board Meeting the board unanimously approved a resolution that will be sent to all governmental agencies in the county regarding the school district’s needs for an expanding population. The hope of the school board, and district administration, is that cities and the county will include provisions in the rewrites of their new General Plans that will encourage, at a minimum and require as optimal, that developers reach an agreement with the school district before the city or county approves a project. According to Superintendent Mike Carey’s presentation at the recent Board meeting the district’s hands, as well as local governments, are tied because of the state law SB50.
SB 50 was designed to create a developer fee system that would pay for development’s impacts on counties and remove the burden on current residents and the state. SB 50 has not kept pace with construction costs that are now soaring above the 6.00 per sq foot mark per home constructed. Fees charged to developers are closely controlled by the legislation and currently the top figure allowed by the law for the average district is 2.63 per square foot- the amount charged by ACUSD. In certain rapid growth conditions district’s are allowed to charge a level two fee- that amount is around 6.00 per square foot for new construction-however the county has not yet reached the level of growth required under the law to trigger the increase.
Currently, the construction of new facilities, to accommodate growth, is supported about one third by the developer fees charged to the developer, another one third supported by the state through state construction funding. The final one third must then be borne by the existing community in the form of Mello Roos or other bonds, such as a general or special district obligation bond voted on by the community. With only two thirds of the costs of new schools covered by outside sources and elementary schools now costing in the 30 to 40 million range and the local vote of support uncertain, the district and its students are placed in a quagmire. However if the county does begin a rapid growth spurt- the district will be ready.
