School Bond Measure Creeps Toward Passage

The San Dieguito Union High School District is just a handful of votes away from the passage of a $449 million bond measure.

Proposition AA would authorize the school district to sell $449 million in bonds to pay for upgrades to its aging schools. It's one of the measures with the highest price tags.

As of Tuesday night, Prop. AA was only 0.13 percent of votes away from passing. As late mail and provisional ballots come in though, the measure is inching toward approval. Last week, it was .53 percent of votes from passing.

There are still more than 200,000 ballots left to be counted.

"I think we are less than 170 votes apart right now," said Ken Noah, San Dieguito Union High School District Superintendent. "If this continues to close, we could end up -- this is purely speculative -- with a 10 vote swing either way."

The district was planning on starting some of the projects they hoped to fund with the bond measure as early as January. They have been planning the bond-funded projects for the last four years.

"This is an emotional roller coaster for a lot of people who are counting on the passage of this bond," Noah said.

Five of 11 of the school bond measures on San Diego County ballots appeared to have passed as of Tuesday night. All the measures require 55 percent approval to pass.

Here's a list of the bond measures and the amount they asked voters to authorize. Those in bold have enough votes to pass as of Tuesday.

PROPOSITION C - Cajon Valley Union School District - $88.4 million
PROPOSITION D - Dehesa School District - $3 million
PROPOSITION E - Chula Vista Elementary School District - $90 million
PROPOSITION G - Mountain Empire School District - $30.8 million
PROPOSITION R - Ramona Unified School District - $66 million
PROPOSITION V - Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District $398 million
PROPOSITION Y - South Bay Union School District - $26 million
PROPOSITION Z - San Diego Unified School District - $2.8 million
PROPOSITION AA - San Dieguito Union High School District - $449 million
PROPOSITION CC - Del Mar Union School District - $76.8 million
PROPOSITION EE - MiraCosta Community College District - $497 million

Propositions C, D, and Y are considered "Reauthorization Bonds," meaning the measures are versions of previously passed bond measures. The new measures would authorize the issuance of new bonds.

Local

news Apr 15

Share your feedback with NBC 7 San Diego

transportation 26 mins ago

Man struck and killed by Amtrak train at Old Town transit stop

The number of bonds in the county has grown significantly since 2010, when there were four school bonds on ballots countywide.In 2008, there were eight, including one in the Primary Election, versus three in 2006.

Two other bond measures were close to passing by Tuesday: Prop. EE in the MiraCosta Community College District has just over 54 percent approval. In Del Mar, Prop. CC had 53.6 percent approval, according to the Registrar of Voters.

Proposition E, a $90 million bond measure to repair schools in the Chula Vista Elementary School District, has a little more than 67 percent approval as of Tuesday. Proposition Y, the reauthorization of a $26 million general obligation bond passed in 2008 to continue upgrading facilities in the South Bay Union School District, also appeared to pass by an even greater margin -- 74.4 percent as of Tuesday.

Statewide, bond measures like those on the ballots of San Diego county voters did well in this election. According to the League of California Cities, roughly 70 percent of local tax and bond measures passed.