Voters may support another Downey Unified bond measure, poll says

Downey Unified is considering adding a bond measure to Novembers ballot to continue upgrading its schools. Photo by Alex Dominguez

DOWNEY - A recent survey shows that a Downey Unified bond measure potentially headed for this year’s ballot “has a path forward” to success, though it will require significant effort from the school district to earn its approval.

The Downey Unified Board of Education is currently deciding whether to ask voters to approve a $504 million bond measure this year or punt it to November 2024 when conditions may stack up more in its favor.

There is some concern that looming economic storm clouds and talk of recession might dissuade voters from taking on more taxes at this time. If approved, the bond would cost average homeowners around $194 annually.

At their meeting last Thursday, the Board received an update on its most recent bond tracking survey, which was conducted from July 6 through 15 by True North Research, Inc. and consisted of a random sample of 512 District voters likely to participate in November’s election.

When posed with an initial ballot question, poll results indicated that around 53% of participants would “definitely” or “probably” support the bond, short of the 55% the bond would need for the bond to pass. Around 36% responded in the negative, and just over 9% said that they were not sure.

Support received a slight boost (58%) when participants were given a list of the bond’s benefits, which include several fixes, upgrades, and modernizations to classrooms and school facilities, safety and security improvements, technology upgrades, and construction of permanent buildings to replace costly portable classrooms.

However, those numbers dwindled when survey takers were given arguments against the bond, simulating an opposition campaign.

In its final ballot question, only 49% of those polled expressed support for the measure, while 40% responded negatively.

Still, several board members – particularly D. Mark Morris – expressed that the time may be now to move forward with the bond, especially with regards to rising construction costs.

“If we go forward now, hopefully it passes because construction costs are only going to go exponentially higher the longer we move this out,” said Morris. “What we could do with $200 million would be significantly less than if we had $200 million now.”

After the meeting, Superintendent Dr. John Garcia expressed optimism for the measure, though said that “there are never any guarantees.”

“What we do know is that we have an incredibly supportive community,” said Garcia. “Our community outreach efforts have yielded results, but what we need is a strong bond campaign, really making sure to get the messaging out as they did in 2014, and then let the voters decide at that time.”

“What I do know is that we have pervasive needs within the district. We’ve done a lot of work within the last 20 years or so, but even in 2014 we identified $450 million worth of work at that time, and we passed a bond for $250 million, so there was no way we were going to cover all of our needs, and our schools continue to age. So, we feel we have a strong case for the community to consider this, and we’re hopeful that they would be supportive.”

The Board has until Aug. 12 to make their final decision. It is anticipated that they will vote on how to proceed at their next regularly scheduled meeting on Aug. 9.