Can Ridgefield taxpayers afford another bond?

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The Ridgefield School District wants another $77 million dollar bond to build a new grade school. Some past history about the district causes us concerns with another taxpayer-funded bond. December of 2004 the school district bought 50 acres on Hillhurst Road to build a high school. Now, 19 of that 50 acres house a new school for grades five to eight and the remaining 31 acres is a sports complex. Our understanding is that about seven acres were traded with the city. The taxpayers voted to buy the land to build the high school and now 31 of those acres are a sports complex. Our district has great needs for schools and a new elementary could have been built on the 31 acres that the school already owned rather than spending more money to buy more land. Yes, the money for the purchase of the new land is from developer impact fees but those fees could help build a new school rather than going to the taxpayers. It appears much of the impact fees are used to get more and more portables lately rather than saving those fees for new schools.

Many people are unaware that the old View Ridge can no longer be used to teach students during the daytime hours. Those classrooms were lost when the district chose to do a repurposing. We now have yet another partnership with the city and the city will use some of the View Ridge complex rent-free. So the new roof, new parking lot and the remodel of View Ridge for an administrative office and whatever else is ongoing. It would be beneficial if the Ridgefield School District could send the taxpayers an itemized statement listing how much of $78 million from the last bond has been spent and where it was spent.



This is the third bond that’s stated the school is doing safety updates. I would think these updates are so important that they would have been done with the first bond. Check your property tax statements that you received in Feb. 2018 and actually see how much you paid in taxes for state and local schools. Please join us in voting no in February.