Beaumont Unified School District is asking voters for $86 million to fix crumbling classrooms, replace decades-old portables, and upgrade campus security — without raising the current tax rate. The Beaumont Unified School District Board of Trustees voted to place Measure B, a school facilities improvement bond extension, on the November 3 ballot, setting up the district's third attempt in six years to win voter approval for major facility funding.
Unlike its predecessors, this version of Measure B would not increase tax rates for property owners, according to reporting from the Banning Record Gazette. Under the measure's terms, property owners within the district would continue paying a levy of $20 per $100,000 of assessed property value to repay the bonds, according to Ballotpedia. That rate is projected to generate roughly $6 million annually while the bonds remain outstanding, per the same source.
A District Straining Under Growth
The stakes behind the ballot measure are laid out in stark numbers. Beaumont USD sits in one of the fastest-growing areas of Riverside County, and district enrollment has increased 37% over the past 15 years, with projections showing continued growth of about 3% annually. That growth has already forced changes to daily school life: enrollment pressure resulted in transitional kindergarten and kindergarten programs being reduced to half-day schedules.
More than half of the district's schools are over 20 years old, including one school building constructed in 1941. The district also has 81 portable classrooms more than two decades old, and those units require costly repairs for structural damage and water leaks. Statewide, the district's situation mirrors a broader pattern: research from the Public Policy Institute of California found that 70% of California's public school classrooms are over 25 years old, with the bulk of statewide facility funding needs going toward modernization rather than new construction.
What the Bond Would and Would Not Pay For
If approved, Measure B could provide $86 million in locally controlled school funding for a specific set of projects. The measure would fund modern laboratories and career technical education facilities, upgrades to older schools to meet current building codes, and replacement of aging portable classrooms along with computer system updates. It would also cover repairs or replacement of deteriorating roofs, plumbing, HVAC, and electrical systems, as well as improvements to student safety and campus security systems.
By law, Measure B funds would come with strict fiscal accountability protections if approved by voters. The money could not be used for administrators' salaries or pensions, and it could not be controlled or taken by the State of California. The measure would also establish a local Citizens' Oversight Committee, which by law would conduct and publish independent audits of how the funds are spent — safeguards consistent with the statutory requirements California law places on school bonds passed under Proposition 39, according to Baker Tilly.
A History of Voter Rejection
Beaumont's path to the ballot has not been smooth. Voters rejected a $148 million Measure E in November 2024, a proposal that would have levied $28 per $100,000 of assessed value; an official recount that December confirmed the measure's failure, according to The Riverside Record. Before that, an earlier $98 million bond also named Measure B failed at the March 2020 ballot, according to Ballotpedia. A $125 million Measure Z bond passed in 2008 and funded new school buildings during an earlier period of rapid housing growth, per Beaumont Unified School District.
Regional context suggests bond fortunes vary sharply even among neighboring districts. In the same November 2024 election that sank Beaumont's Measure E, voters in nearby Banning Unified School District approved their own $74 million facility bond, Measure O, which carried an estimated tax levy of under $51 per $100,000 of assessed value, according to MyNewsLA.
The Path to 55% Approval
Measure B needs a 55% supermajority to pass rather than the two-thirds threshold once required for local bonds, under provisions of California's Proposition 39, approved by state voters in November 2000. The Riverside County Registrar of Voters lists a Beaumont Unified Measure B election notice.
The renewed bond push follows other recent district investments, including a $5.8 million campus safety project that installed more than 900 new security cameras providing 1,847 fields of view across district schools, a project identified as a priority in the district's Long Range Facilities Master Plan, according to Patch. District officials are directing residents seeking more information to a Measure B page at beaumontusd.us/measureb, which includes frequently asked questions about the proposal ahead of the November 3 vote.
