San Francisco’s public schools often need a lot of fixing up. Take West Portal Elementary, which is turning 100 this year.
“Our school was old,” said Principal Pamela Aguilar. “There were a lot of old and pretty decrepit and small bungalows.”
On a tour around West Portal, Aguilar talked about getting new classrooms, windows, electrical and fire safety systems, and a lot more. It’s one of more than a dozen schools getting updates thanks to a number of bond measures.
“It's been an epic transformation of our school,” said Aguilar. She said the kids were enthusiastic about witnessing the full timeline of a construction project, and even worked with a construction manager on site to teach them about the work. “ He gave us printouts of some of the machines that the kids would be seeing on campus. We laminated them and we put them on the fence line.”
And thanks to a board vote on Tuesday, some of the bond money will also go toward student career development in the construction trades.
But not everyone is happy with this process. The Citizens Bond Oversight Committee, or CBOC oversees the spending.
Laurance Lee, the group’s vice-chair, says part of their job is to help catch accounting mistakes. He said just last week he alerted the board to a $45 million error, but recent rule changes at the district have gutted their ability to do meaningful oversight. CBOC wants more transparency — and they’re suing.
“They are not hiding any money. They are not having people steal money,” said Lee. “It's more a question of them trying to just make it easy on themselves with not having to share information with the public.”
But this money comes from the public, and the district will have to ask for more of it soon. West Portal Elementary’s renovations will be done at the end of next year, but plenty of other schools need work. Lee said transparency through CBOC is one way to win voters’ trust.
The district said they value CBOC, and that they’re committed to being accountable to voters and taxpayers, but wouldn’t comment on the suit.
