This November, voters in the area served by Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut will be faced with a $750-million general obligation bond, Measure V , to finish ongoing construction and renovate infrastructure at the campus. If the measure — which Mt.
SAC trustees approved for the ballot in April — wins at least 55% approval this Nov. 5, property owners within Mt. SAC’s service districts in East San Gabriel Valley would contribute about $15 for every $100,000 their property is valued to Mt.
SAC, according to President Martha Garcia. For example, Garcia explained, “Let’s say that someone who owns a half-a-million-dollar home, they would be paying $75 a year and that would go to Mt. SAC.
” The money raised for the bond will be used on a list of projects, including the campus’s Technology and Health Building. “We do need about $80 million from it to complete the Technology and Health building, because we don’t have enough money to complete it,” Garcia said. The Technology and Health Building will be four-levels and will support 10 different departments and 26 programs.
According to Tilden Coil’s website, the construction company boasts that this project will be the largest building on any California community college campus. However, the 270,000-square-foot project sits as a hole in the center of Mt. SAC’s campus and finances.
“If [the bond] is not approved, we have to get a loan to finish the Technology and Health building, because if we don’t get that loan, then we could lose about an $82 million match from the state and I will not let that happen,” Garcia said. Ultimately, that scenario would “financially hurt Mt. SAC a lot” even while finishing the project, Garcia said.
The funds to build the Technology and Health building originally came from Measure GO in 2018, which authorized Mt. SAC $750 million in bonds to upgrade the campus and require a citizen oversight committee. The measure passed with a 62% majority.
Now, in addition to the $750 million from Measure V, if the bond is approved by the state, the college might matching funds, extra funding that can be used to expand and upgrade existing facilities. The president said that the additional funds will be used to remodel building 67, the campus’s Health Career Center. After the Technology and Health building is finished, the Health Career center will be repurposed for other departments and will need to be remodeled.
The 61-year-old library in Building 6 will also get a remodel with more funds, Garcia said. Along with renovating older buildings, the funds will also be used to upgrade older infrastructure, such as a new water chiller to support air conditioning around campus. She said this infrastructure upgrade is expensive and is recommended every 30 years.
“So we’re prioritizing the projects that are necessary that will help us get through the next at least 15 to 20 years,” Garcia said. Student Trustee César Tlatoāni Alvarado supports the measure and the school’s expansion. “We’re growing as an institution and we want to sustain that growth,” Alvarado said.
“So we are going to be going to the voters to ask for an additional 750 million to help support the growth of the campus.” When asked if faculty and staff pay would be affected by the measure after multiple protests for a pay raise last Spring semester, Alvarado said he supports staff efforts but “ ..
. I also recognize that we have to be fiscally responsible here at this institution.” Maya Alvarez Galvan, who has been an English professor at Mt.
SAC for 25 years, said she thinks the school has a problem with how it manages its money by having inflated reserves and overspending on promised projects. “I think that Mt. SAC has built some beautiful buildings and I definitely see the benefit to the students,” Galvan said.
“But I think the community needs to ask a lot of questions about how that money is being spent.” The next Board of Trustees meeting will be on Sept. 11 where the new mascot, Rizzly the Grizzly will be in attendance.
Adam Young is a freelance writer for the Southern California News Group, who also is a contributing writer for the Mt. SAC newssite, SACMedia. This story was published in collaboration with the college.
.
