What the last bond actually bought.

The clearest example sits at the high school. The 2017 FMP specified a 25-yard by 33-meter pool, line-itemed at $8.45M including deck, bleachers, and equipment. What was actually built is a 40-meter pool now committed at roughly $13.6M — a 61% increase on a project whose scope was quietly enlarged. That is a scope change, not a straight cost overrun. The community was not asked whether a larger competition pool was worth $5M of bond capacity that could have funded modernization elsewhere.

The FMP placed a $16.5M two-story classroom building at La Cañada Elementary. The May 2026 report still shows zero dollars spent against it. The same report shows zero dollars against the $1.6M LCHS stadium home bleachers. That is roughly $18.1M of promised projects with no construction underway — not deferred to a footnote, not explained, not yet built. (The $5.5M LCE modernization scope was previously listed as missing too; about $996K of HVAC work has now been booked under it.)

Palm Crest's modernization scope was estimated at $3.5M. The committed spend is now $10.6M — 199% over budget, though the report subtotal bundles roof, playground and surveys that the FMP line did not. Palm Crest site utilities are 91% over, and include charges like "$243,083 to Gold Sun Enterprises for entry adjustment Fencing 2019-20" booked against utilities (net of which the overrun is closer to +77%). Paradise Canyon Safety & Security ran 81% over. Boring on their own; concerning as a pattern.

Cost overruns on construction projects are not, by themselves, a scandal. Construction inflation since 2017 is real. Scope changes happen. What is missing is the public reconciliation: a single document that says, for each of the 30+ FMP line items, here is what we promised, here is what we built, here is what changed, and here is why. Without that, asking voters to authorize another bond is asking them to sign a blank check on top of a blank check.

This site exists because the framing of "vote yes for the kids" forecloses the conversation we should actually be having. The kids are why we live here. The teachers are why we stay. A bond measure is not a referendum on affection for the District; it is a contract. When the last contract was not honored line-for-line, the burden of proof shifts.

We are voting NO until the District publishes a clean reconciliation of Measure LCF, explains what happened to the missing scope, and brings a right-sized proposal back to the community with controls that match the ask.