San Juan Unified School District broke ground last week on a $4.3 million gym at Mesa Verde High School, the district's first major construction in 15 years.
Come December, the district will start building another gym at Del Campo High School, and in June, construction will begin on a brand new library at Mesa Verde.
Turns out, the bottom falling out of the housing industry is good for districts such as San Juan that have passed school construction bonds but not yet used them up.
The gym would have cost about 25 percent more to build just a few years ago, said Don Myers, the district's senior director of facilities and planning. "We're seeing really hungry contractors right now."
Robert Pierce, associate superintendent for facilities and planning in Elk Grove Unified School District, said districts are experiencing a favorable climate for construction bids.
"Our bids are coming in at far less than our architects or engineers have estimated," Pierce said. "All of the sudden, contractors are sharpening their pencils because quite honestly people are hungry for money."
Funding for the new San Juan buildings comes from a $350 million bond that voters approved in 2002.
"We saw construction prices escalate after the bond passed in 2002," Myers said.
"But because of the downturn in the economy for the last year now, as well as the downturn in housing market, we've actually gotten a very good price (on the gym construction)."
The timing for Mesa Verde's new gym was right in more ways than one.
In the years since the bond passed, the district also began to see a decline in enrollment, so officials wanted to be prudent about upgrading facilities that might have to be closed.
Mesa Verde already has one gym, built at the same time as the rest of the school in 1974. Adding the new 8,500-square-foot gym gives the school another full-size basketball court and more room for athletic teams to practice.
It also puts Mesa Verde on par with the majority of San Juan high schools. All the other schools – save Del Campo – have two gyms.
The $350 million bond was pitched to voters as a way to equalize amenities at San Juan schools and to repair and maintain campuses mostly built in the 1950s and '60s.
When voters approved the bond, they agreed to pay $60 in taxes per $100,000 assessed value of their homes for 30 years, Myers said.
"We're doing 25 million to 30 million (dollars) per year in construction work," said Myers, who anticipates the $350 million bond will allow for about 10 years of construction.
Call The Bee's Melissa Nix, (916) 321-1090.
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