Survey indicates measure to extend HUSD school bond is likely to pass

A survey of 400 residents indicates that a to extend the financing of certain projects for Healdsburg Unified School District through property taxes is likely to meet with voter approval, according to Jon Isom of Isom Advisors, which conducted the survey. HUSD officials commissioned the survey to help them determine whether and how to move forward with a new bond measure for November 2012.

According to a , Jon Isom's brother and also of Isom Advisors, the bond financing extension would not result in a property tax rate increase in the district, but would simply extend the existing rate.

Jon Isom delivered a presentation at Wednesday night's School Board meeting about the survey's results, which he said indicated that slightly more than 60 percent of likely voters would probably support the measure – more than the 55 percent it would require to pass.

“There are a number of factors that could change between now and election day, but the results from the survey are a pretty good indicator as the the viability of a school measure for the district,” Isom said.

Isom's  brother, Greg Isom, who pitched the survey to the HUSD school board in April (the survey was conducted last month); Greg Isom was tied up because he and his wife just had a baby, Jon Isom said.

The precise percentage breakdown to the initial survey question of whether residents would support a bond measure if voting were held today was as follows: 54 percent said they would support the measure; 4 percent said they probably would support it; 10 percent said they were undecided; 29 percent said they would not support the measure; and 3 percent said the probably would not support it.

Those favorability numbers actually went up slightly when the question was again posed at the end of the survey, after respondents were given more precise information about how the measure would be funded, the kind of oversight it would receive in terms of taxation and expenditures, and how revenues would specifically be used. When respondents were asked how they would vote at the end of the survey, 57 percent said they'd favor the measure, 5 percent said they probably would and 8 percent declared themselves undecided.

Isom said Healdsburg residents were particularly receptive to bond-financed projects relating to capital improvement, improved student access to computer technology and enhanced energy efficiency.

“The (overall) response was favorable, and I think for a number of reasons,” he said. “One, it's evident that the community supports the district – the board, the superintendent, administrators and teachers. They think the district is doing a good job. Second, there's good support for proposed capital improvement projects … And I would add that Sonoma County as whole, as of late, has been very favorable to school measures, and that trend is evident in Healdsburg.”

The bond measure under consideration would extend by 15 years an existing Healdsburg school bond that is helping finance district projects through a property tax of $47 per $100,000 of each resident's assessed property value. That tax rate could fluctuate slightly, depending on fluctuations in local property values, according to Isom.

The bond measure would finance possible projects like new school buildings for Marce Becerra Academy and a science lab for The measure stems from proposition 39, which California voters passed in 2000.

That law lowered the requirement for passing similar bond measures from a 2/3 vote to a 55 percent vote, but requires clearer explanations to voters of what specific bonds will entail, as well as stricter oversight of a bond's implementation, according to Isom.

Also during Wednesday's school board meeting, Superintendent Jeff Harding delivered a presentation praising the success of which aims to educate students on the dangers of drunk driving with speeches and a staged car accident. Harding called the event a “sobering” but extremely effective lesson.

As part of his presentation, Harding showed a video of two keynote speeches from the event. One was a heartfelt speech from then-Cali Calmecac Language Academy principal Chris Vanden Heuvel -- now principal at -- about a 2008 car accident that sent him to the hospital and severely injured his wife; the other was a speech by Officer Jon Sloat reminding students that they face a very real danger.

“You are more likely to die in a car accident (in the next 10 years) than I am in the line of duty,” he said.