With Super Tuesday approaching on March 3rd, we would like to let the San Jose community know that the East Side Teachers Association (ESTA) and California School Employees Association (CSEA), representing the certificated and classified staff of the East Side Union High School District does NOT support Measure J, or the East Side Union High School District Housing Project.
As much as we desire teacher and employee housing, Measure J is problematic and does not have our staff's best interests in mind.
· With all of the proposed layoffs the district is doing, the staff that could benefit from housing won’t even have jobs
· The district superintendent initially said the district would profit a minimum of $1 million a year from the housing project and the revenue would go towards staff salaries. He now says the revenue will NOT go toward staff salaries
· There has been no community or stakeholder input regarding impact on such things as traffic and local infrastructure
· Estimated cost of property management is $60,000 a month
· The estimated rent cost at 70% of market rate WILL NOT lead to enough savings that will result in a down-payment on a house
· Investment in this property will benefit approximately 5% of employees while incurring an added expense to about 50% of employees who already live in the area
· There will be a more impactful parcel tax proposal from the district in November that would benefit all of our students and staff rather than just 5% of the staff