San Jose’s largest public school district is looking to use bond measure funding to not only pay for workforce housing, but also to update its aging schools.
The San Jose Unified School District has plans to modernize all of its 49 campuses and facilities to the tune of $4 billion. Officials are looking to pay for more than $1 billion worth of upgrades with Measure R, a nearly $1.2 billion bond measure approved by district voters in 2024. The funds will be used to improve school safety, upgrade classrooms and facilities and provide affordable housing for teachers and staff. More than $282 million is expected to be set aside from Measure R for workforce housing.
“We don’t have $4 billion to knock out everything that we want to do, but (we do have) a substantial amount of capital,” Seth Reddy, SJUSD chief business officer, told San José Spotlight. “Rather than making repairs in a piecemeal fashion, we wanted to take a step back to develop a strategic plan … and be responsible stewards of those tax dollars. We want to be thoughtful and strategic about how we invest those funds to best support our students and our teachers and staff.”…