An editorial · May 2026 report · financials as of April 30, 2026
We love LCF.
That's exactly why
we're voting NO
on Measure LCF.
The District's own May 2026 Measure LCF expenditure update shows a pattern any homeowner would recognize: scope quietly enlarged, big-ticket projects skipped, line items running 30 to 200 percent over budget. Before we authorize another bond, we think the community deserves to read the receipts on the last one.
Exhibit A
The five biggest blowouts.
- 01
Modernization + Building Systems
Palm Crest Elementary
199% over the FMP estimate — the largest percentage variance in the program. Caveat: the report subtotal bundles roof repair, playground and surveys that the FMP line did not, so the comparison is semi-comparable.
FMP 2017
$3,536,736
SPENT
$10,589,760
+199%
- 02
Site Utilities
Palm Crest Elementary
91% over FMP. About $243K of the figure is a fencing entry-adjustment booked against utilities; net of that mis-booking the true overrun is closer to +77%.
FMP 2017
$1,745,609
SPENT
$3,336,738
+91%
- 03
Safety & Security
Paradise Canyon Elementary
81% over the FMP estimate. Composition: $203,885 S&S plus $663,680 fencing.
FMP 2017
$478,800
SPENT
$867,565
+81%
- 04
25yd × 33m Pool
La Cañada Jr./High
Scope enlargement, not a pure overrun: the FMP specified a 25yd × 33m pool; a 40m pool was built. Now $13.64M committed against the $8.45M FMP line — a 61% increase tied to an enlarged scope the community was not asked about.
FMP 2017
$8,452,070
SPENT
$13,643,763
+61%
- 05
HVAC
La Cañada Elementary
Now $996K (Project 95120 plus CalSHAPE), up from just $60K in April 2024. Against the FMP HVAC line of $637K, that is 56% over.
FMP 2017
$636,800
SPENT
$996,417
+56%
Exhibit B
Projects that quietly disappeared.
These line items were promised in the 2017 Facilities Master Plan. They still show zero spending in the District's May 2026 Measure LCF expenditure update.
La Cañada Jr./High
Stadium Home Bleachers
$1,574,917
budgeted in 2017 · $0 reported spent
La Cañada Elementary
2-Story Classroom Building
$16,492,153
budgeted in 2017 · $0 reported spent
Exhibit C
Taxed, but not allowed to vote.
The Sagebrush area's territory transfer into LCUSD does not take effect until July 1, 2026 — after the Measure LCF election. Sagebrush residents are not eligible to vote on the measure, yet once the transfer closes they will be inside the district boundary and bound by the tax assessment for the next several decades.
Whatever you think of the bond's merits, asking a neighborhood to pay for a 30-year obligation it had no voice in approving is not a fair way to start a new chapter of the district.
The argument, in brief
"Yes" requires evidence. We have the opposite.
This is not an anti-school site. La Cañada Unified is the reason a lot of us moved here. The teachers are extraordinary, the kids are thriving, and the physical plant genuinely does need investment.
But "we need to fix the buildings" is not a defense of this measure. The 2017 bond promised a specific list of projects at specific prices. Seven years later, several of the most expensive promises are simply gone from the books, while other line items have run double or triple their estimates with little public explanation.
Before authorizing a new bond, the District owes the community a clean, project-by-project reconciliation of the last one.