As SVUSD Trustees Smollen, Jubran and Pietrolungo Vie for Votes in the Nov. 3 Election, They Take Up Rules for a Possible 2028 School Bond Measure and Property Tax Increase in Simi Valley
A vote on Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2026, is the latest in a series of steps that could lead to a 2028 school bond and a Simi Valley property tax increase lasting about 30 years.
OPINIONEDUCATIONSIMI VALLEY POLITICSFEATURED
Oct 17, 2026
What's Happening
SIMI VALLEY — In June, the Simi Valley school board let the deadline pass to put a property tax measure on this November's ballot. On Tuesday, Oct. 20, three board members who are on that same ballot will vote on an update to the rules Simi Valley Unified would follow to put a school bond and property tax increase before local voters, including one in 2028. The three are Dawn Smollen, Kareem Jubran and Dr. Stephen Pietrolungo.
A school bond is a voter-approved loan for building and repairing schools, and Simi Valley property owners pay it back over many years through their county tax bills. The update covers the district's policy on these loans, called general obligation bonds.
The item is on the consent agenda, a list of items the board approves in a single vote, usually without discussion. Any trustee can pull an item for separate debate, and residents can speak during public comment. Unless someone speaks up, though, the rules for how the district would ask Simi Valley voters for a future tax increase could pass without discussion or significant public input, two weeks before three of the trustees face voters in the Nov. 3 election.
The update does not put a school bond or tax increase on the ballot. But it sets the ground rules for one, and district officials and some trustees have pointed to the 2028 presidential election as their best chance to win voter approval.
Residents who want to weigh in can attend the meeting, which starts at 5 p.m. Tuesday at Simi Valley City Hall, 2929 Tapo Canyon Road. Agendas and video are posted on the district's meeting archive.
Why It Matters
Under the options the board studied this year, a new school bond would either raise property tax rates or keep them from going down when an older bond is paid off in 2032.
Local property owners already pay $39 per $100,000 of assessed value each year for Measure X, the $239 million bond Simi Valley voters approved in 2016, and they are still paying off Measure C4, approved in 2004. Assessed value, the figure Ventura County uses for property taxes, is often lower than what a home would sell for today.
The largest option the board considered this year, a $487 million bond, would have added about $59 per $100,000. For a Simi Valley home assessed at $1 million, that works out to about $590 a year for the new bond, on top of about $390 for Measure X. A home assessed at $500,000 would pay about half those amounts.
The district's bond adviser based its estimates on bonds repaid over 30 years, so a new bond could stay on local tax bills for about three decades. Measure X itself is not scheduled to be paid off until 2051.
The vote also lands in the middle of campaign season. Ms. Smollen, the board president, is running for the Rancho Simi Recreation and Park District board; Mr. Jubran is running for mayor; and Dr. Pietrolungo, who was appointed to the school board, is seeking a full term. Their votes on Tuesday will help shape the rules the next board uses to decide whether to go back to Simi Valley voters.
Ms. Smollen, who cannot run for the school board again because of term limits, argued this year for moving ahead with a bond. "It is concerning to me that we're not investing in our schools," she said, adding that well-kept schools help hold up property values.
Neither candidate running to replace her in Area E, which includes Simi Valley High School along with Knolls and White Oak elementary schools, has embraced a new bond. Jodi Lewis, a senior operations manager, said at a forum that she is undecided and wants stronger project management before supporting one. Ryan Rosuck, an educator, said most of the district's schools are aging and need continued investment, and she called for a review of the Measure X program, including project timelines and contractor oversight.
Mr. Jubran, a construction engineering executive, has called affordability the city's biggest quality-of-life concern in his campaign for mayor, but local coverage of the race does not show him taking a position on a new school bond. Before joining the board in 2018, he was vice chair of the citizens' committee that oversaw how Measure X money was spent.
Dr. Pietrolungo, a retired principal of Simi Valley High School and Monte Vista School, said at candidate forums this fall that he opposes tax increases in general but supports investing in aging schools, and that voters would have the final say on any bond. Published accounts of the forums do not show him explaining how the district would pay for that investment without new taxes.
The district's bond adviser has told trustees that districts have few ways to pay for major projects besides bonds, mainly state aid, grants, leases and parcel taxes. Parcel taxes, like bonds, need voter approval. State building aid comes with a catch: Simi Valley Unified would have to put up $29.4 million of its own money to receive it.
That raises a question for voters in Area D, which includes Berylwood, Garden Grove and Sycamore elementary schools: How would Dr. Pietrolungo pay to fix aging schools without raising property taxes? His opponent, James Greenfield, a sanitation operations manager, said he would want to see responsible financial management before asking taxpayers to borrow more.
The Big Picture
Over the past year, the district has done much of the groundwork a school bond and tax increase require. The board held a workshop on school buildings and bonds in October 2025, and that November it hired an adviser, Isom Advisors, to survey local voters. In January, the survey found that about 62 percent of likely voters would support a $487 million bond, above the 55 percent that school bonds in California need to pass.
Trustees held a second bond workshop in March, heard a staff update in April and weighed tax-rate options that spring.
District officials say the need is real. All of the Measure X money has been committed, about $200 million in planned projects never got funded, and some buildings and systems are more than 60 years old.
Ms. Smollen, who joined the board in 2017, and Mr. Jubran, elected in 2018, have served through nearly all of the Measure X program. The bond paid for renovated classrooms, security upgrades and new multipurpose rooms at campuses such as Atherwood and Madera elementary schools and Royal and Simi Valley high schools, but rising prices cut into how far the money went. This spring, Ms. Smollen noted that the district had estimated its building needs at about $600 million when voters approved Measure X, and Ron Todo, the district's associate superintendent for business and facilities, told the board that some safety and security projects remain unfinished.
Why 2028? The answer is mostly turnout, since more Simi Valley residents vote in presidential elections, though some trustees also wanted more time to reach the public. Mr. Todo suggested a presidential-year ballot as early as 2024, and in October 2025, Isom Advisors showed trustees that local turnout had ranged from 27 percent in June 2018 to 76 percent in November 2024, according to its presentation. The firm's disclosures to the district note that part of its pay may depend on a bond deal going through.
Not everyone on the board agrees. Dr. Ron Resnick, a trustee elected in 2024, cited an independent survey in which more than two-thirds of respondents did not want a bond at this time, and he said improving schools does not always require new debt. Some longtime residents have told the board they cannot afford higher taxes.
Any 2028 school bond and tax increase would require more board votes, starting with a decision to explore one. The board making those calls will include the winners of this year's two school board races, along with trustees Mike James and Ron Resnick, whose terms run through 2028. Mr. Jubran's term also runs through 2028, but he would likely have to give up his seat if he is elected mayor. Simi Valley's mayor sits on the City Council, and state law bars one person from holding two offices that conflict. The state attorney general has repeatedly found that a city council seat and a school board seat covering the same area conflict, The Santa Monica Daily Press reported during a similar dispute in 2020.
Trustees still serving in 2028 would have their own seats on the same November ballot as any school bond and tax increase, which means the people deciding whether to ask Simi Valley voters for a tax could be asking for their votes on the same day.
The Simi Valley Ledger is an Official Publication of The Freedom Project © 2026
The Simi Valley Ledger in Simi Valley's Investigative News Source.
We are telling Simi Valley's Story
Subscribe to our newsletter and never miss a story.
We care about your data in our privacy policy.