Santa Maria-Bonita School District looking for community members to help oversee spending of $77 million bond

SANTA MARIA, Calif. - The Santa Maria-Bonita School District is looking for community members who will help oversee the spending of $77 million in Measure K bond funding.

Last November, Santa Maria voters approved the bond measure, which will help fund infrastructure improvements throughout the district. The bond required a vote of 55% in approval to pass.

"We had 62.33% of the community voting yes on Measure K and we're thrilled," said Matt Beecher, Santa Maria-Bonita School District Deputy Superintendent For Business Services. "Our most critical need in the Santa Maria-Bonita School District is additional classroom space. We have large schools. We have large classes and we want to invest as much as we can into creating new learning spaces for students. The dollars can also be used to modernize our facilities so that we can keep pace with technology and address some of the needs of our youngest learners in kindergarten and transitional kindergarten."

Now that the bond has been passed, the next step the district needs to take before accessing the funds is to create an official Citizens' Oversight Committee, which is required by California Education Code.

"The Citizen's Bond Oversight Committee is a really important kind of window into how the school district will be spending the proceeds from the Measure K bond," said Beecher. "It will review the expenditures, the spending from those proceeds to ensure that everything that is invested in aligns with the ballot measure language."

According to the school district, key responsibilities committee members will be expected to carry out are:

• Oversee Bond Measure Funds: Ensure bond funds are used solely for the projects specified in Measure K-2024.
• Review Financial Audits: Receive and review annual financial and performance audits of bond fund expenditures.
• Inform the Public: Provide regular updates to the community regarding the use of bond funds.

To fill the committee, the school district is now actively seeking a diverse group of volunteers from the Santa Maria area who will represent the entire community.

"The Citizens' Bond Oversight Committee is required to have seven members," said Beecher. "Generally a parent, a parent who's engaged in a PTO or school set council, a member of a Taxpayers Association or a retiree association, and then a couple of general community members."

Beecher added the committee will meet occasionally throughout the entire duration of how long the bond funding lasts for spending.

"The Citizens' Bond Oversight Committee is going to meet maybe three or four times a year to review expenditures and also some audit reports, maybe report to the school board about findings from the committee work," said Beecher. "I believe that the bylaws call for terms of two years and we'll revisit those terms as they come up."

Community members who are interested in joining the committee are asked to apply online at the Santa Maria-Bonita School District website.

"We'll review those applications to make sure that we have a good mix of people, try and meet all of the roles that are required and then ensure that the meetings don't get too large," said Beecher. "I think any time we can get people involved, behind the scenes, government activities, get them involved in how those dollars are spent, overseeing how those dollars are spent, it improves the credibility of the things that we're doing for our students."

The deadline to apply is Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025.

To learn more about the Measure K Citizens' Oversight Committee, or to apply, click here.