By Bill Beecher, Chair, Citizens Oversight Committee
This past year was a busy year for the Pajaro Valley Unified School District (PVUSD) implementing the Measure L funds. We replaced or repaired roofs on 32 buildings at 8 school sites. If we had not completed these, we could have incurred significant and expensive damage during this winter’s rainstorms.
These roofing repairs were part of our safety program under measure L. We also installed Columbine style locks in all of our Secondary schools. We had installed the same locks in our Elementary schools in 2015. Fire alarm systems were replaced at two sites.
LED exterior lighting was installed at many sites. Outside security cameras were installed at all of the secondary schools. A water tank was replaced at Alianza. It provides our fire sprinklers with sufficient water. A dust collection system was installed at Renaissance. Security fences were installed at several schools.
In order to meet our classroom needs, old portables were removed and replaced as well as adding new classrooms. Twenty classrooms were added at 3 sites.
These are the latest energy efficient structures. A 2-story unit was installed at Watsonville High and a 9 classroom quad was installed at EA Hall. We encourage parents and citizens to visit these two sites to see what we have completed.
We also upgraded many of the schools with painting and flooring. The flooring was a combination of carpeting and the latest tiles, covering over 3,300 square yards.
IT Section
The District completed the first round of implementing Intelligent classrooms. Each classroom will have a 70” HD TV display, a documentation camera, and a front row audio system including student microphones. This project is designed to provide consistent and effective teaching tools for each classroom, library and other instructional locations.
The district installed additional security systems to keep our students, staff and data safe on the Internet. In order to increase data access speed and capacity, new high speed, solid-state data storage was added. The remaining seven schools received the district-wide Voice over IP (VoIP) telephone systems. Internet connectivity was increased due to the infrastructure improvements.
There were many smaller projects that were completed and we will not covering them in this press release. If you want to review all of the details we encourage you to visit our web site pvusd.net. Click on Measure L to cover these details.
Financially, we are finishing the first $80 M issuance against the $150 M Bond and are starting the second issuance of $40 M. All of the work is reviewed by the Citizen’s Oversight Committee (COC) four times a year and by an external auditor once a year. The School Board then receives regular reports on the progress.
I would like to thank the assistance of Victor Sandoval, Director of Facilities for PVUSD, and his assistant Adam Lint for providing the details included in this release, and Tim Landeck, Director of Technology Services. They have also been instrumental in providing transparency for the Board and the COC to make the reviews easier to cover.
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Contact: Bill Beecher, via PVUSD Business Office, 831 786-2140