With a $49.5 million bond to pay for repairs, renovations and new buildings on the Portola Valley School District's two campuses inching toward approval as votes are counted in the Nov. 6 election, district officials have begun the process of hiring staff to manage the project.

The district is beginning to plan the design and construction of the projects. First, it will need to assemble a team to provide the technical and managerial expertise for the projects, according to a district staff report. The district late last week posted a job description for a director of bond projects/facilities.

Superintendent Eric Hartwig will provide updates on the process at a school board meeting tonight (Nov. 14).

The district hired Eric Holm, the bond project manager for the Las Lomitas Elementary School District, to help define the various roles needed to implement the district’s project. He will also help create a process for evaluating and choosing candidates.

The district is seeking an architect or architectural firm, a director of the bond program, and a construction and project management firm.

The pay for a director of bond projects/facilities is listed at $149,625 to $186,750 to start, plus benefits. Applications are due Nov. 30.

The district will interview architects. Four to six of the candidates will be submitted to the board for approval.

To move the process along, the board will seek volunteers from the district staff, the parent community and the professional community to help with screening, interviewing and evaluating the candidates.

The board plans to vote on the candidates in January.

Unofficial election results updated by the county on Nov. 13 show support for Measure Z is holding steady. It had 1,109 votes in favor (61.24 percent) and 702 votes opposed (38.76 percent) as of that date. Unlike in past elections in San Mateo County in which most votes were tallied by election night, there are many thousands of votes yet to be accounted for in the county Elections Office’s latest figures. Therefore, the success or failure of many ballot measures cannot be ascertained yet.

The next vote count results will be announced at 4:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 16.

The bond would add a maximum of $300 per $1 million of assessed valuation to property tax bills.

Bond revenue would go toward projects listed in a plan approved by the school board. The plan prioritizes projects into three areas: immediate, to be built if funding is available, and long-term.

The facilities plan shows immediate projects at Corte Madera School, including a new two-story classroom building, costing between $38.4 and $42.5 million. At Ormondale School, projects costing $10.9 to $12 million are included as immediate first-phase priorities.

A majority of the bond money would go to new construction, but only because some of the existing buildings are in such bad shape that it is less expensive to replace than repair them, Hartwig said. The district, which has recently had slight drops in enrollment, would not end up with more classrooms than it now has under the plan, he said.

The school board meets at 6 p.m. tonight in room 102 at Corte Madera School, 4575 Alpine Road in Portola Valley.

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