File photo.

The Clovis Unified Governing Board voted Wednesday to place a $400 million facility bond on the November ballot for voters to decide whether to fund school facility needs in the district.

In June, the Citizens Committee to Study Capital Facility Needs recommended that the board investigate this decision. The committee is a 40-member group of volunteers that met for six months to inventory and research the district’s facility needs.

The committee identified several needs of existing schools, including repairs, modernization, safety and technology upgrades, and construction of additional schools necessitated by continued enrollment growth and current overcrowding. 

Some of the school site needs must be fully funded—those projects were expected to cost around $550 million. However, the committee prioritized the list to bring the number down to $400 million so that the current tax rate would not change if the bond is approved. 

Clovis Unified’s tax rate has been $155 per $100,000 assessed value for the past 12 years — the lowest in the district’s history. Property owners in Clovis Unified’s boundaries pay less than their counterparts in Fresno, Central and Sanger unified school districts, whose tax rates are $213, $215, and $203 per $100,000 of assessed value, respectively.

If approved, the bond would provide funding for updates and modernization of older schools. Several Clovis Unified schools are 40 to 80 years old. It will fund the completion of the final phases of Clovis South High School, the planned budget of which was significantly impacted by a steep escalation of construction costs and labor following the pandemic. The funds will also help improve school safety and energy efficiency features on the 53 Clovis Unified campuses.