Program Background and History

The District’s facilities are a mixture of aging one-story and two-story buildings built between 1935 and 1996.All buildings are Field Act approved, which means that they were built in compliance with the applicable building codes at the time of construction but do not comply with contemporary code requirements.  Building codes changed dramatically in the 1990’s after the Loma Prieta and Northridge earthquakes.Structural engineers studied how buildings performed during these major earthquakes and improved the building codes accordingly.

In 2000, prompted by citizen inquiries regarding the seismic safety of certain school structures, PUSD began a comprehensive review of school buildings.By 2005, two independent structural engineering reports identified school structures that would likely pose life safety risks in the event of a major earthquake on the nearby Hayward Fault. 

On March 7, 2006, Piedmont voters approved the District’s request to finance the repair, strengthening, and renovation of these buildings.  The voters authorized the District to sell up to $56 million in general obligation bonds for this purpose.