Fact #8:

NOTE: HBCSD put a $54M bond on the ballot in November 2014 that lost. In June 2016, HBCSD put a new $59M bond on the ballot. During this time HBCSD school board members withheld more than $3M from being spent on students' education and campus upkeep.

NOTE: Did school board members purposely withhold funds from district campuses and educational needs to make it appear that the district was in worse shape than it actually was? Was the withholding of district spending done to compel the parents and the community into passing an unnecessarily large school bond?

NOTE: After HBCSD's $59M bond passed in June 2016, school board members resumed spending previously withheld district funds on students and campus upkeep. In addition, by 2018 district enrollment had dropped by 110 students. This release of district funds AND the drop in enrollment would give unsuspecting parents the effect of immediate positive benefits of passing the district's overpriced bond. School board members can control public perception by withholding then releasing district funds immediately after a bond is passed.

NOTE: School facility bond funds, by law, CANNOT be used to pay for everyday operations. Only by releasing previously withheld General Fund money can a school district give the impression of an immediate benefit of passing a construction bond.

NOTE: By law, after passing a school facility bond, school districts are are supposed to appoint a Citizen's Oversight Committee to oversee bond expenditures. COCs are typically composed of district supporters. District supporters are unlikely to question the expenditures of funds by school board members. In addition, the COC auditing happens months after the funds have already been spent. It is unlikely that any COC would actually sue their school district regarding illegally spent bond funds.

(1) By June 2015, HBCSD school board members had amassed reserves of $2,949,713 or 25.5%.  In other words, $2.9M was held back from being spent on students or plant services while school board members waited to pass a $59M facilities bond. 

NOTE: In 2015 average daily attendance (ADA) was 1,422 students. Enrollment had dropped by approximately 41 to 50 students from the 2014 high.

(2) By June 30, 2016, the year the school district’s $59M Measure S was passed, HBCSD had amassed reserves of 25.9% or $3,384,821!!! These are funds withheld from district operations. The more than $3 million withheld from district operating funds is also believed to have had the effect of panicking parents, staff and the community to pass the district's $59M bond. 

NOTE: In 2016 HBCSD average daily attendance (ADA) was 1,384 students. Enrollment had dropped by approximately 88 students from its 2014 high.

(3) By June 30, 2017, HBCSD reserves had dropped back to 21.7% or $3,039,161.00. A year after the district's $59M bond was passed, school board members released (spent) approximately $350,000 of funds that had been previously withheld from spending on students and plant operations.

NOTE: In 2017 HBCSD average daily attendance was 1,328 students. Enrollment had dropped by approximately 144 students since its 2014 high. YET, school board members continued with plans to build a brand new 510 student campus.

(4) By June 30, 2018, HBCSD school board members decreased district reserves further to 19.7%. Now that HBCSD had passed their 2016 $59M bond school board members spent approximately $300,000 of previously reserved funds on students and plant operations.

NOTE: In 2018 HBCSD average daily attendance was 1,310 students.