Community members have a clearer picture of the Palo Alto Unified School District Capital Improvement Bond after a meeting sponsored by Site Council on Jan. 7.

Robert Golton, the district’s interim co-chief business officer; Tom Hodges, a district consultant; and Ron Smith, district facility manager, were all present at the meeting to clarify the process in that lead to the current list of priorities and to answer questions from members of the community.

The measure is a Proposition bond, which means that its passage requires 55 percent approval, rather than a 66.7 percent vote, according to Golton.

“In some ways this gives more assurance to the voters because there are certain requirements that have to be met along with the 55 percent vote,” Golton said. “These include both financial and performance audits, an oversight committee, and it also allows funding for equipment, computers, and furnishings.”

Golton gave background information on the bond, specifically on how the list of projects came to be compiled in the given priority. Evaluations of every room on every district campus were made, according to Smith. When forming the 20-year plan, growth and future programs were considered.

This bond measure has through many changes over the past three years, and Golton considers the measure to be a living document.

Although the priorities of what needs to be accomplished with the money have been listed, the sequencing of projects if the measure passes has yet to be decided. At the moment, there are only vague ideas of what the timeline and sequencing will be, according to Golton.

One of the concerns that surfaced at the meeting regarded the issue of maintaining flexibility and the wording of the document.

“We have to be really careful about how the projects are grouped,” Golton said. “Because the measure’s numbers are based in square footage, there is more flexibility.”

“Unlike past bonds, now we are designing to the money. Instead of designing the projects first, and then getting the money, we are taking a different approach,” Golton said. “We will come back to the design once we have the money so that we will not be cutting projects later. This way we will already know the amount of money that we have to spend.”

The next Site Council meeting is 3:30 p.m. on Jan. 28 in the English Resource Center.