SCVUSD administration facility construction still on schedule

Despite forced cutbacks to balance more than $900,000 in red ink the Santa Cruz Valley Unified School District No. 35 is continuing with plans to build a new administrative building in Rio Rico. Bids for the construction of the new building will be solicited next week with the construction to begin after contractors are selected and permits are obtained. The new building could be ready for administrators by December.

Kim Fernandez, ABA Architects, said the new administration building has been scaled down from the original plan to a modified rectangle shape of about 7,000 square feet. The building will be constructed of wood with stucco and will sit on property owned by the district just southwest of the Peck Canyon exit off Interstate 19, just southeast of Mountain View Elementary.

Fernandez finalized the building plans with the district's governing board on May 4. The project is part of the $10 million bond referendum approved by voters in the district in November 2006. The cost of the just over 6,000-square-foot building is estimated to be approximately $150 to $162 per square foot, she said. The final cost should be between $930,000 and $1.2 million, according to Fernandez.

The current administration building is a small modular-type building that opened in 1998. That building is not large enough to hold all of the district's administrative employees and some of the administrators are in other district buildings, according to Superintendent Dan Fontes. Plans call for the existing modular building to be modified into a registration center or Welcome Center once the new offices are completed.

Fernandez and Carlos Robles, district project and facility director, explained all of the bond projects to the governing board during the meeting May 4. In addition to the new administration building, the voter-approved capital bond money is slated for fencing at the high school, installation of two greenhouses for horticulture classes, a new culinary arts kitchen, three new school buses, a parking canopy at the district bus garage, a restroom facility near the Calabasas Middle School and parking lot improvements, according to Robles. All of the projects are expected to be completed this year, he said.

The governing board seemed pleased with the progress being made on the capital bond projects but retired Rio Rico resident Jack Scholnick did not share their enthusiasm. He said he wants the administrative building to be put on hold “until times are better economically” and planned to tell the school board what he thought about their plan for a new building.

But Scholnick missed his chance to address the board. When Board President Brian Vandervoet announced the “Call to the Public” agenda item early in the night's proceedings Scholnick did not step forward to speak. When he did ask for a chance to address the board at the end of the meeting he was told “no,” he had missed his opportunity.

The “Call to the Public” allows members of the audience to speak to the governing board for up to five minutes.” Speakers must complete forms available for scheduling an appointment prior to addressing the board. Although Scholnick did not fill out the proper papers the governing board would have considered his request to speak if he would have come forward at the right time, said Vandervoet. He said Scholnick is welcome to come to a future meeting should he still want to address the board on this issue.

Scholnick and his wife, Maria, and young daughter sat quietly in the back of the room throughout the three-hour meeting. When his request to speak at the end of the session was denied he stormed out of the Rio Rico High School Choral Room.

“If they didn't want me to talk why did they invite me,” said Scholnick. “I'm not the bad guy here.”

Scholnick said he received a letter from Vandervoet inviting him to attend the meeting after his “Guest Opinion” appeared in the Nogales International on April 21. In his published opinion piece Scholnick asked the school board to “stop this foolishness to build a $100,000 plus resort and do it when times are good.” He said that the board was “acting irresponsibly” and advocated forming a public lobby group to stop construction of the administration building. In his letter to Scholnick, Vandervoet extended an invitation to attend Monday's meeting to “review of all the projects funded by the capital bond override” with the governing board.

“I had 745 people call me after my letter was in the paper,” sad Scholnick. “They all said they wouldn't have voted for it (the bond issuance) if they had known it was going to be spent on a new administration building.

“If it wasn't in such bad times I could see it,” said Scholnick. “When you are down $904,000 in your budget you don't build a $1million administration building and let go 15 teachers and close 10 classrooms in a school. You don't build a place with 360-degree views and beautiful patios when you don't have money to take care of the kids and our children's education.”

According to Vandervoet and the district's administrators the $10 million bond referendum approved by voters in the district in 2006 cannot be used for anything other than what the voter's agreed to use it for. He said that the bonds issuance was specifically earmarked for construction of buildings, including the new administrative building, renovation of existing district property, purchase of buses and improving school grounds. “That's what the voters said ‘yes’ to and we can't shuffle the money around for books or teachers or salaries or blackboards or anything else,” said Vandervoet. “Funds for this building come from that bond issue and can't be used for anything other than what they were specified for.”

“We don't have the authority to change what the public told us that they wanted,” said governing board member Harry Clapeck. “We cannot just grab monies and shuffle them back and forth at will. Anyone who deals with a government agency knows that there are many laws and restrictions that legally prohibit us from robbing Peter to pay Paul.”

“I'm not through with this,” said Scholnick after the meeting. ”Bonds can be overridden and things can be changed. Right now we need to have the money for books and teachers. We need to postpone building this building until times are better.”

Vandervoet and Clapeck said that Scholnick, and anyone else from the public, is welcome to come before the governing board and express their opinions. Construction of the new administrative building will continue as planned, they said.