The Ridgefield School District is again returning to the drawing board to figure out how to pass a construction bond district leaders say is necessary to address rapid population growth.
On Wednesday evening, Interim Superintendent Chris Griffith shared the results of a community survey about the most recent bond attempt. The survey of 356 respondents showed voters want the district to adjust bond proposals to focus on top district priorities and consider which election cycles would maximize voter turnout.
“We saw a little bit of everything. There’s definitely some learning points from it,” said board President Brett Jones. “It’s going to take a little bit of time to navigate that, but every option we get that gives us an idea what the community is trying to tell us, we’re listening.”
The survey found that voters are interested in seeing simplified building designs that focus on “basic educational needs.” Add-ons such as a new elementary school turf field and renovations to Ridgefield High School’s wrestling and locker rooms were deemed less important, according to the district.
Six consecutive bond attempts have failed in Ridgefield since 2019. If passed, the measures would have funded at least one new building, an expansion to Ridgefield High School and infrastructure upgrades throughout the district.
The most recent failure came in April. District leadership decided to run two bond measures with the hopes that voters might pass a scaled-down measure to get the ball rolling on needed short-term projects.
Both failed to get a supermajority, with the lower-cost Proposition 10 receiving 58.91 percent of the vote. A 60 percent supermajority is required for school bonds.
Griffith said the district will continue to push legislators to repeal the 60 percent supermajority, as such a threshold isn’t required for other measures including short-term levies.
More outreach
Griffith said Wednesday that prior to the survey, he and other district leaders sat for meetings with representatives from the “yes” and “no” committees about what another bond attempt might look like.
Heidi Pozzo, a leader from the committee against the most recent bond, said that the meeting was productive and that she feels the district is demonstrating a better understanding of her group’s opposition to a bond.
“What came through in the presentation was a sense of listening to the community as a whole,” said Pozzo, a business consultant. “There were plenty of people we talked to who (voted against the bonds), and there’s still a pretty widespread agreement that there’s a need for an elementary school.”
Pozzo said that she and other authors of the “no” argument in previous voters’ pamphlets are not totally opposed to any sort of bond measure. She thinks the district needs to spend more effort publicly presenting research into population changes to help give voters a better idea of what age groups or neighborhoods are growing quickest.
The information may give people with less familiarity with schools — residents without kids, for example — a more tangible reason to vote “yes.”
“I think a lot of people are getting hit with news of a bond election without even knowing what’s going on,” she said.
Griffith said in Wednesday’s meeting that the district will move to reestablish a Capital Facilities Advisory Committee to help guide decisions regarding the district’s infrastructure needs with members of the community alongside staff. The district is also planning to host another town hall sometime in July once new Superintendent Jenny Rodriquez takes the lead roll with the district.
