With campuses in need of repair and their student populations growing rapidly, officials of the Sierra Joint Community College District are asking voters to fund a major upgrade and expansion.
On March 2, voters in the district will decide if they want to support Measure E, a $394 million bond that would fund repairs and new buildings on campuses in Placer and Nevada counties. The 3,200-square-mile district covers all of Placer and Nevada counties and a small part of Sacramento and El Dorado counties.

The district has found a broad spectrum of support for the bond among faculty members, students, civic leaders, business owners, Roseville's fire chief and the Placer County sheriff. But opponents of the bond are encouraging its defeat, saying the measure is loaded with wasteful spending.

"We understand very well the county's sensitivity to bonds and taxes," Sierra College President Kevin Ramirez said. "Taxing people is not a good deal, but I think this is a fair deal."

If approved by 55 percent of voters, the bond would add a tax of $19 per $100,000 of assessed property value. The median assessed value for homes in the district is $173,000, Ramirez said, which amounts to an additional tax of $32 per year.

The last time Sierra College put a bond measure on the ballot was in 1959, Ramirez said. Voters approved that bond, which paid for the construction of the Rocklin campus.

Since then, officials say, the college has opened sites throughout the district, but little has been built at the Rocklin campus.

"I enrolled here in 1972," said Ray Cunningham, the college's assistant director of facilities. "With the exception of one big building, nothing has changed since then."

On a recent morning, Cunningham toured the Rocklin campus, pointing out leaky roofs, peeling paint and large sections of lawn dug out where workers were repairing heating pipes that routinely burst in winter. He said that his department spent $1.3 million last year for temporary repairs on the heating pipes and that about half of the classrooms on campus have peeling paint caused by leaks.

Then Cunningham opened the door to a storage room that functions as a computer lab because of crowding on campus. Conduit pipes are exposed overhead, and a table covered with books blocked a rolling garage door. Students do not have high-speed Internet access on campus because computers are wired through phone lines, Cunningham said.

Down the hall in the chemistry lab, Cunningham pointed to an outdated fume hood. With its broken motor, the room is not properly ventilated during chemistry experiments.

"It's actually a hazard to students," he said.

While supporters of the bond say the money is needed to repair such aging facilities, opponents say the college is in a jam because it has not managed its finances properly.

"They say they need $40 million for deferred maintenance," said Carl Hass, a Rocklin resident who opposes Measure E. "My question is: What have they been doing with their annual maintenance budget?"

College officials point out the bond will do more than make repairs. It provides money for expanding the campuses, which officials say is necessary given the school's growth in enrollment. In the seven years between 1995 and 2002, college enrollment grew by 48 percent while its facilities expanded by 11 percent.

Sierra College serves 20,500 students who earn academic credits and an additional 31,300 community members in job training and enrichment programs. Officials predict that with the region's growing population, enrollment in credit courses could increase by an additional 10,000 students by 2015.

Critics doubt whether such predictions will come to pass. With one new private Christian college under construction in Placer County and two more college proposals winding their way through the approval process, opponents of Measure E say enrollment at Sierra College may slow down.

"The bond money will build these nice facilities. But in order to get the operational cost of the campus, they have to have enrollment," said Ken Campbell, chairman of the Placer County Republican Central Committee.

Campbell emphasized that the group does not have a position on the bond measure and that his opposition is strictly personal. Other members of the Republican Central Committee are outspoken supporters of the bond.

Ramirez called Campbell's argument a "flawed analysis," saying Sierra serves more students than will be able to attend the new colleges. Two of the new colleges would be private schools with steep tuition and the third, the proposed Placer branch of California State University, Sacramento, would have competitive admissions criteria.

Bond money would fund a new campus in the Twelve Bridges development in Lincoln, another sore spot for opponents Campbell and Hass. They say thousands of students and teachers driving between Lincoln and Rocklin will create traffic and air quality problems.

Ramirez said the Rocklin campus cannot grow much more. Trustees have decided to limit expansion on that campus, he said, so it doesn't become too crowded for students to park or get classes. That requires more classrooms in other corners of the district, he said.

On Sierra's campuses in Truckee and Roseville, the college is leasing space because it can't afford to buy permanent sites, Ramirez said. Bond money would provide the funds to build permanent campuses, he said, which would be a better use of public funds.

Hass, the Rocklin resident who opposes the bond, has asserted that the college "bought" the support of the Rocklin City Council through its proposal to use some bond money to build a new firehouse in Rocklin. The joint-use facility would serve Rocklin city residents and Sierra students studying to become firefighters.

Kathy Lund of the Rocklin City Council said the arrangement is a smart move.

"What we're trying to do in the deal between the city and the college is to put taxpayer money to the most efficient use possible," said Lund, an elected member of the Placer County Republican Central Committee and a supporter of Measure E. "This is another opportunity to try to make the taxpayer money go further."