As funds from the previous facilities bond begin to wind down, the district has been exploring new options to fund current and future construction projects on campus.

During a regular meeting of the district Governing Board in early September, presentations were given to the board highlighting the college’s facilities needs and the options for funding them. At the end of the month, during a Chancellor’s Forum, District Chancellor Lynn Neault and Vice Chancellor Sahar Abushaban gave an update about funding improvements for facilities at Grossmont College.

The $398 million from Proposition V, a previous bond measure passed in 2012, has allowed Grossmont to complete various projects on campus. Most recently, Grossmont’s new Science, Math, & Career Tech Complex, Building 36, was completed in early 2024.

The old bond has also facilitated renovations to buildings 51 and 55. In addition to exterior touch-ups, the project will refresh classroom spaces and accommodate new technology infrastructure.

While updated classrooms and new buildings have certainly improved the campus, the district looks to secure a long-term funding plan to address critical infrastructure concerns.

At the forum, Abushaban said the college is in serious need of improved water infrastructure to ensure safety and protection against the risk of fire.

“If there is a fire, either on campus or across the communities close by, the college is not going to have enough pressure to put out those fires,” she said.

According to a press release by Padre Dam, Grossmont’s water supplier, a fire marshal had visited the campus in 2019 and advised the college to “make upgrades to campus buildings by adding fire sprinkler systems or meet higher fire flow requirements.”

The district originally demanded that the supplier pay for the upgrades, a project originally estimated to cost around $15 million, according to Padre Dam. The supplier cited Proposition 218, arguing that the state indicates it is Grossmont’s responsibility to fund any infrastructure improvements that exclusively serve its campus.

Since then, the college has sought state funding to assist with a much larger infrastructure project that would cost around $45 million, according to Abushaban.

The proposed project would install fire sprinkler systems in several buildings, improve water pumps to address water pressure concerns and provide the college with a larger water tank.

Abushaban said if the state does not supply the college with funding for the project, the district would again turn to the voters of East County for money.

Dale Scott, president of Dale Scott & Company, presented to the Governing Board, serving as a municipal advisor to the college. He suggested a tax extension was a more feasible route to secure funding from the public rather than putting a new bond measure on the ballot.

Scott said if a new bond measure were passed, it would mean an additional tax rate for voters on top of the existing rates for previous bonds. 

Alternatively, he said voters would be more likely to approve a measure extending the current tax rate than asking them to pay a higher rate.

Even though the tax extension would not kick in until 2031, Scott said that they could restructure the payment via a bond anticipation note, allowing the college to issue new bonds in 2027 and gain early access to funding.

Scott said that if the measure passed, the goal would be to issue the bonds as early as possible, before interest rates increase, a move that has saved other colleges “tens of millions of dollars.” 

At the forum, the chancellor reviewed Scott’s proposed timeline for an extension of the existing tax rate from the 2002 Proposition R bond measure.

According to Neault, the Governing Board will aim to approve a resolution in the spring of 2026 that will allow the tax extension measure to be put on the ballot sometime in the following fall.

Assuming the measure passes, Neault said the first series of bonds will be sold in January of 2027.

“We’re going to need everybody to help us with this, because our needs are significant,” Neault said.