EdSource Webinar

Building for the future: Funding school renovation and construction

Across the state there are schools, built in 1950s, that urgently need repair, portable classrooms that are falling apart, water fountains with dangerous levels of asbestos and cafeterias sweltering without air conditioning.

With all state money for school facilities already spent or committed, the Legislature is considering placing a $13 billion school construction bond before voters next year. Much of the money would help school districts meet the cost of modernizing their buildings.

In this webinar, we will explore why more state building aid is needed and discuss whether the formula for matching state aid should be changed. A study of California facilities funding from the Getting Down to Facts research project concluded that the formula for allocating money for renovating schools results in more money going to school districts with higher property values, higher median family incomes and fewer low-income children.

Join EdSource’s Louis Freedberg and John Fensterwald for a live, online conversation with a panel of experts on school facility funding.

When: Tuesday, June 18 from 1 – 2 p.m.

Where: Online. Click here to register!

Cost: Free but registration is required and space is limited. Register soon to save your spot!

SPEAKERS

Nancy Chaires Espinoza is a Legislative Advocate at Murdoch, Walrath & Holmes, where she represents the Coalition for Adequate School Housing (CASH), and helps to lead the fight for sustainable, reliable funding for school facilities in California. She has nearly two decades of experience at the local, state and national levels of government, in addition to work in the nonprofit and private sectors helping state and local agencies improve their effectiveness and efficiency. Nancy is a member of the Elk Grove Unified Board of Education, and she holds a B.A. in Political Science and Spanish from Whittier College, and an M.P.P. from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Jeff Vincent is a co-founder and a director at the Center for Cities + Schools at the University of California, Berkeley. Jeff has a PhD in City and Regional Planning from Berkeley. His research focus lies at the intersection of land use planning, community development, and educational improvement, with a particular focus on how school facilities serve as educational and neighborhood assets. He has studied issues of public school facility financing and equity for more than 10 years in California and nationally.

Dr. Barbara Flores is in her third term on the San Bernadino Unified School Board, where she has served as president and vice president. She is also past president of the California Latino School Boards Association. A Professor Emerita of Education at Cal State San Bernadino, where she taught literacy/biliteracy and language arts to pre-service teachers and master’s degree students in the Bilingual and Reading programs from 1987-2018, Flores was superintendent of Lennox Unified from 2012-13.

Eric Bakke has over 16 years of school facilities experience, including his current role as Legislative Advocate for the California School Boards Association. Prior to working with CSBA, Mr. Bakke worked for the Los Angeles Unified School District as their Legislative Advocate representing LAUSD’s school facilities interests. He also worked for the Office of Public School Construction as a program manager.

At the local level, Mr. Bakke volunteers his time working with the San Juan Unified School District as the immediate-past Chair for the Bond Oversight Committee for San Juan Unified School District and Endorsement Chair for it’s successful $750 million school facilities bond.

The webinar, part of an ongoing series of deeper dives into the Getting Down to Facts research released earlier this year, is co-sponsored by Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE).