How transparent is local school bond spending? Here’s how districts compare, according to one report

Most of San Diego County’s roughly two dozen school districts with active bond programs are open about how they’re spending billions in taxpayer money, with a few exceptions, according to a new annual report from the San Diego County Taxpayers Association.

Each year, the group grades K-12 and community college districts on their bond programs’ transparency and accountability, based on metrics including their bond ratings, audit reports and responses, information on funded projects, oversight-committee business and current-year budget breakdowns.

On this year’s report card, the districts — excluding the lowest-performing outliers — averaged 90%, or an A-, which was 3 percentage points better than last year.

The association graded 23 districts that spent bond money in the 2024-25 fiscal year, wrote Sarah Schroeder, the group’s public policy director. (As of the 2024 election, 27 districts countywide had active bonds, but she said some have not started their programs yet.)

“Our goal is for the report to serve as a public resource for ensuring responsible stewardship and oversight in education financing by assessing how districts disclose the allocation of bond proceeds approved by voters,” she wrote.

With over $23.5 billion in bonds, taxpayers need to know the money is being used in the ways it was promised and with proper citizen oversight, Mike McLaughlin, the Taxpayers Association’s president and chairman of the board, wrote in an email.

“It’s all about openness, transparency and accessibility to information,” he said.

On this year’s report card, the four lowest-performing districts were the small rural Borrego Springs Unified with an F, Lemon Grove with a D+ and two South County districts, National with a D and Chula Vista Elementary with a D+.

For Chula Vista, that grade marked the steepest drop among all districts from last year — down from an A- in 2024.

The district said it values the feedback and is committed to transparency and responsible stewardship. It noted it has historically gotten high marks but said that several bond-related pages didn’t transfer correctly when it launched a new website and that it’s working to update them.

“We recognize the importance of providing our community with clear, accessible, and up-to-date information,” wrote spokesperson Giovanna Castro.

Marianna Vinson, the superintendent of Lemon Grove, said her district is committed to transparency and improving how it manages and communicates its bond program.

“We’ve already implemented measures to strengthen our reporting and audit processes and are confident future reviews will reflect that progress,” she wrote.

Officials at Borrego Springs and National school districts did not immediately return requests for comment.

Despite Chula Vista’s steep drop, another South County district notched an even bigger leap in the other direction. Sweetwater Union High School District marked the most dramatic turnaround on this year’s report card, rising from an F to a B.

Sweetwater said it appreciates the report card’s recognition of its efforts. “Our district has worked diligently throughout the past to ensure transparency of our bond program,” it said in a statement.

Four school districts — Grossmont Union, San Diego Unified, San Ysidro and Vista Unified — all got an A+, along with two community college districts, Grossmont-Cuyamaca and MiraCosta.

Grossmont was also honored Wednesday with a separate award from the association, known as the “Golden Watchdog,” for reducing its bond interest rate.

Gary Woods, president of the Grossmont school board, said the honor recognizes board planning and the work of fiscal-services and bond-management teams and the bond oversight committee. He said the refinancing would save taxpayers more than $18 million.

“Through the community’s investment of nearly $1 billion in bond funding, GUHSD has modernized every East County campus with new science buildings, AI-ready technology, sports and performing arts facilities and advanced career technical education spaces,” he wrote.