Article 1. Purposes For Authorizing Bonds of California Education Code >> Division 1. >> Title 1. >> Part 10. >> Chapter 1. >> Article 1.

Except as otherwise provided by law, the governing board of any school district or community college district may, when in its judgment it is advisable, and shall, upon a petition of the majority of the qualified electors residing in the school district or community college district, order an election and submit to the electors of the district the question whether the bonds of the district shall be issued and sold for the purpose of raising money for the following purposes:
  (a) The purchasing of school lots.
  (b) The building or purchasing of school buildings.
  (c) The making of alterations or additions to the school building or buildings other than as may be necessary for current maintenance, operation, or repairs.
  (d) The repairing, restoring, or rebuilding of any school building damaged, injured, or destroyed by fire or other public calamity.
  (e) The supplying of school buildings and grounds with furniture, equipment, or necessary apparatus of a permanent nature.
  (f) The permanent improvement of the school grounds.
  (g) The refunding of any outstanding valid indebtedness of the district, evidenced by bonds, or of state school building aid loans.
  (h) The carrying out of the projects or purposes authorized in Section 17577 or 81613.
  (i) The purchase of schoolbuses the useful life of which is at least 20 years.
  (j) The demolition or razing of any school building with the intent to replace it with another school building, whether in the same location or in any other location. Any one or more of the purposes enumerated, except that of refunding any outstanding valid indebtedness of the district evidenced by bonds, may, by order of the governing board entered in its minutes, be united and voted upon as one single proposition.

Except as otherwise provided by law, the governing board of the Peralta Community College District may, when in its judgment it is advisable, order the county superintendent of schools to call an election to be conducted pursuant to this chapter and submit to the electors of the district the question of whether the proceeds of previously authorized but unissued bonds of the district may be used for a purpose or purposes in addition to the purposes for which the previously approved bonds were authorized by the electors. The governing board may, by order entered into its minutes, call for an election to expand the purposes of prior authorized but unissued bonds either as a single proposition on the ballot or combined with the question of issuing new bonds of the district for any purpose or purposes permitted by law. If two-thirds of the votes cast on the question of expanding the purposes for which the proceeds of previously authorized but unissued bonds of the district may be used, or the combined question of expanding the purposes for which the proceeds of previously authorized but unissued bonds of the district and issuing newly authorized bonds of the district, are in favor of the proposition, the district may use the proceeds of the previously authorized but unissued bonds for the expanded purposes and may issue newly authorized bonds, as the case may be.

Notwithstanding any other law, an election may not be held pursuant to this chapter within 45 days before a statewide election or within 45 days after a statewide election unless conducted at the same time as the statewide election, subject to Part 3 (commencing with Section 10400) of Division 10 of the Elections Code, or on an established election date pursuant to Section 1000 or 1500 of the Elections Code.

(a) This chapter shall apply to bond elections for and the issuance of bonds for school facilities improvement districts created pursuant to Chapter 2 (commencing with Section 15300) to the extent that this chapter does not conflict with Chapter 2. In the event of a conflict, the provisions of Chapter 2 shall supersede the provisions of this chapter, but only to the extent of the conflict.
  (b) A bond adopted by the voters pursuant to this part prior to January 1, 2008, shall be governed by this part as it read on December 31, 2007.

The total amount of bonds issued pursuant to this chapter and Chapter 1.5 (commencing with Section 15264) shall not exceed 1.25 percent of the taxable property of the school district or community college district, or the school facilities improvement district, if applicable, as shown by the last equalized assessment of the county or counties in which the district is located. For purposes of this section, the taxable property of a district for any fiscal year shall be calculated to include, but not be limited to, the assessed value of all unitary and operating nonunitary property of the district, which shall be derived by dividing the gross assessed value of the unitary and operating nonunitary property within the district for the 1987-88 fiscal year by the gross assessed value of all unitary and operating nonunitary property within the county in which the district is located for the 1987-88 fiscal year, and multiplying that result by the gross assessed value of all unitary and operating nonunitary property of the county on the last equalized assessment roll.

Notwithstanding any other provision of law, for the purpose of computing the limit on the amount of bonds which may be issued by a district pursuant to the provisions of this chapter, the taxable property of the district shall be determined upon the basis that the district's assessed value has not been reduced by the exemption of the assessed value of business inventories in the district or reduced by the homeowner's property tax exemption.

For the purpose of the provisions of Sections 15102 and 15106 which require that the valuation as shown on the last equalized assessment roll be modified pursuant to Section 41201 or 84201, the "current year" as used in Section 41201 or 84201 shall be deemed to be the latest fiscal year for which there exists a last equalized county assessment roll as ascertained in accordance with Chapter 3 (commencing with Section 2050) of Part 3 of Division 1 of the Revenue and Taxation Code, and the term "two immediately preceding years" shall be deemed to be the two fiscal years immediately preceding the fiscal year for which the last equalized county assessment roll exists. Whenever in any year it becomes necessary to determine the modification under Sections 15102 and 15106, at a time between the date when the assessment roll for that year becomes the last equalized county assessment roll ascertained under Chapter 3 and the date when the factor for the current year is certified and becomes available, the factor for the current year shall be deemed to be 1.00.

A unified school district or community college district may issue bonds that, in aggregation with bonds issued pursuant to Section 15270, shall not exceed 2.5 percent of the taxable property of the school district or community college district, or the school facilities improvement district, if applicable, as shown by the last equalized assessment of the county or counties in which the district is located. In computing the outstanding bonded indebtedness of a unified school district or community college district for all purposes of this section, any outstanding bonds shall be deemed to have been issued for elementary school purposes, high school purposes, and community college purposes, respectively, in the respective amounts that the proceeds of the sale of those outstanding bonds, excluding any premium and accrued interest received on that sale, were or have been allocated by the governing board of the unified school district or community college district to each of those purposes respectively.
  (a) For the purposes of the State School Building Aid Law of 1952 (Chapter 6 (commencing with Section 16000)) with respect to applications for apportionments and apportionments filed or made prior to September 15, 1961, and to the repayment thereof, Chapter 4 (commencing with Section 15700), inclusive, only, a unified school district shall be considered to have a bonding capacity in the amount permitted by law for an elementary school district and a bonding capacity in the amount permitted by law for a high school district.
  (b) For purposes of this section, the taxable property of a district for a fiscal year shall be calculated to include, but not be limited to, the assessed value of all unitary and operating nonunitary property of the district, which shall be derived by dividing the gross assessed value of the unitary and operating nonunitary property within the district for the 1987-88 fiscal year by the gross assessed value of all unitary and operating nonunitary property within the county in which the district is located for the 1987-88 fiscal year, and multiplying the result by the gross assessed value of all unitary and operating nonunitary property of the county on the last equalized assessment roll. In the event of the unification of two or more school districts or community college districts subsequent to the 1987-88 fiscal year, the assessed value of all unitary and operating nonunitary property of the unified district or community college district shall be deemed to be the total of the assessed value of the taxable property of each of the unifying districts as that assessed value would be determined under Section 15102.

In computing the limitation of indebtedness of a school district, community college district, or school facilities improvement district of any kind or class up to this time or in the future formed or organized, hereinafter in this section referred to as the "bonding district," the outstanding indebtedness of any previously existing district all or any part of which forms a component part of the bonding district and the outstanding indebtedness of any district for which any territory that has become a part of the bonding district is liable shall be excluded and shall not be deemed, for the purposes of computing the limitation of indebtedness under Section 15102 or 15106, to constitute outstanding indebtedness of the bonding district, except to the extent that the outstanding indebtedness has been expressly assumed by the bonding district by vote of not less than two-thirds of the electors of the bonding district voting at an election at which the proposition of assuming the indebtedness is voted upon. Nothing contained in this section shall operate to release any property from liability for taxes to pay the principal and interest of indebtedness incurred by any component district or for which any territory that has become a part of the bonding district is liable and in which the taxable property is located at the time of the incurring of the indebtedness. It is the intent of the Legislature to provide in this section a special method of computing the limitation of indebtedness of school districts or community college districts irrespective of liability of the area embraced within the school districts for the payment of any bonded indebtedness. This section does not authorize the issuance of bonds in excess of the limits expressed in Section 15334.5.

For the purpose of determining the limitation of indebtedness of a school district, community college district, or school facilities improvement district of any kind or class under Section 15102 or 15106, that portion of the bonded indebtedness of the district for which another district or territory in another district is liable shall be excluded and shall not be deemed to constitute outstanding bonded indebtedness of the district.

Where an elementary school district and a high school district with a combined average daily attendance of 300,000 or more are governed by the same governing board, and the pupils in grades seven and eight in the districts are in attendance at high schools maintained by the high school district, the governing board, by resolution filed with the county auditor, may provide that the bond issuance limitations determined under Section 15102 shall be adjusted by reducing the bond issuance limitation of the elementary school district by 1 percent of its total and by augmenting the bond issuance limitation for the high school district by the amount by which that of the elementary district was reduced.

An action to determine the validity of bonds and of the ordering of the improvement or acquisition may be brought pursuant to Chapter 9 (commencing with Section 860) of Title 10 of Part 2 of the Code of Civil Procedure. In such action, all findings, conclusions and determinations of the legislative body which conducted the proceedings shall be conclusive in the absence of actual fraud.

The governing board of each school district or community college district shall, within 30 days after the end of each fiscal year, submit to the county superintendent of schools who has jurisdiction over the school district or community college district a report containing the following information, concerning any election held pursuant to Sections 4152, 15120, 15121, and 16058 for the approval of the issuance of bonds or the assumption of any bonded indebtedness or other indebtedness:
  (1) The total amount of the bond issue, bonded indebtedness or other indebtedness involved.
  (2) The percentage of registered electors of the district who voted at the election.
  (3) The results of the election, with the percentage of votes cast for and against the proposition involved.