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The passage of a $44 million bond measure in the November election, which appears certain at the time of publication, means that Barbara Dill-Varga, the Aromas-San Juan Unified School District superintendent, can breathe a little easier. She is moving forward with the rebuilding of the San Juan School and significant renovations to Anzar High and the Aromas School.
Measure D required 55% of the vote to pass and garnered 58% across the district’s three counties. The funds will be spent to increase school security, repair classrooms and facilities and construct new classrooms. It also qualifies the district for state matching funds.
BenitoLink: How confident were you in the measure’s passage?
Dill-Varga: Our February survey of the community indicated a favorable outcome because 90% of the people in this community said schools are the most important asset to a community. They help the community stay together and provide a positive place for its families and youth. There have been some troubled waters in the state and the communities around us that gave me a little concern, but everybody around me was positive about it passing. However, some things are happening in our town, like the rising water rates, that make people look at their tax bills more carefully.
What did the district do to make its case for the measure?
As a superintendent, I can’t tell people how to vote, but I can provide factual information. From the beginning, I had planned to have a series of events that would distribute information at different venues, like speaking to the Rotary Club. We had a town hall meeting. We had Anzar High’s 30th anniversary. I had a booth at Aromas Day and San Juan Day. It was a steady drip of information so people would understand what we have to offer at our schools.
We also began a partnership with [designer] David Jakes to help redo our learning spaces and renovate some of the classrooms. That got people in to see the condition of the classrooms and understand what could be done. They need to see that we are good stewards of the taxpayer dollars granted to us, like getting the air conditioning done. I want people to see that you voted for Measure M [$4.2 million in bonds passed in 2020], and you very loudly said, “Air condition the schools,” and we did it. You want to uphold the community’s trust in you as you’re trying to establish a vision for the future.
Are you now trying to sort out how you will spend the money?
We’re at the front end of that process now. We can’t do anything until we officially accept the certification of the results, which will happen at our Dec. 18th meeting. And then we’ll need to call in Jennifer Colby, chair of our bond oversight committee. In the meantime, we have a lot of things in process that we finish first. We have four more classrooms that we are renovating over the Christmas break. And I’ll probably try to bring David Jakes back in January to identify four or five more teachers for rooms to be done over the summer. What I’m trying to get at is that we are already working on many different things.
What are your priorities?
We need to timeline getting San Juan School built. And while that’s going on, we can start the plans, with the stakeholder involvement, to gather ideas so that when that finishes, we’ll already have started some Aromas School and Anzar High things.
We think San Juan School will be open and finished by the fall of 2027. That is seven years after we got the money through Measure O [$30.5 million in bonds], passed in 2020. So there’s time. You have all these hoops to go through and all the planning you’ve got to do. But we will start figuring out how our projects overlap and what conversations need to happen to get us to our concepts. One thing you will see is that we will be sending out requests for quotations and proposals to architects because there will be multiple projects, so we don’t want just one architect. We’ve started getting emails and inquiries from construction firms and architects because they want to get in on it.
Do you find yourself thinking, “We can do this and this,” and then have to rein yourself in?
I’m sure that’ll come up. We’d like to renovate the main building at Anzar. I’d love to replace the portables with more permit construction. Other people have their wish lists, like doing something to the cafeteria or the track. Then there are the things you need to address that are not sexy, like repairing old pipes. We will have to go through the facility’s master plan and the wish lists, get the stakeholders, the teachers, parents and the community in, and see how far we can stretch $44 million.
One of my personal and professional goals is to really support, enhance and communicate the special nature of Anzar. It’s unlike most other high schools, and I truly believe that it has the potential to be like a lighthouse for how high schools function and operate. A definite priority is taking some of this bond money and making that campus what the founders dreamed it could be. They never really finished their plan because they ran out of money. There is also the professional development that we’re doing, hiring and having a salary schedule that’s attracting great teachers.
What is your sense of responsibility toward the community that approved the bond?
As a superintendent, I must remember that only a certain percentage of the community that passed the bond are parents. I want to be aware of what kinds of partnerships they expect or what would be good for us to develop. When you look at San Juan School, we’re intentionally building the multi-purpose room in a way that maybe El Teatro can use that space, with a roll-up door that spills out into an outdoor arena to have performances that the community can take part in.
I really care about the concept of engagement, and I want to make sure that when we think about our facilities, we consider how they could be multi-use and address more than just the instructional needs we have during the day. So, 10 years from now, if there’s another bond, they feel, “OK, we voted for it, and we got value from it. And we see the school as being centered to what we’re doing.”
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