David Tooker has been the superintendent of schools of this rapidly growing 7,000-pupil school district in the northern portion of Sacramento for the past five years. Tooker and three other entrepreneurial educators and local government officials are creating greater value for their constituents by teaming together and creating a joint-use campus, including a community college, public library and regional park called the Natomas Town Center.

Their ingenuity did not stop there! On top of the obvious benefits the community will derive from their working together and pooling resources, the school board has also selected a new financing arrangement —“privately financed leased facilities.” This arrangement will further stretch taxpayer dollars during these tough economic times. In short, Tooker and his three friends from the local community college, the county/city library board and the city are making their constituents’ money go further and enhancing rather than reducing services, without spending an extra dime.

The vision for this collaborative effort came about from a meeting Tooker had with Dr. Bryce Harris, chancellor of the Los Rios Community College System beginning in 1999. Los Rios has three campuses located on 150-acre sites in the region, but Harris realized that smaller satellite centers were more“student friendly” for the changing demographics of the area. The reality was that students did not want to travel long distances for school, and more and more adults were seeking new skills after work, which required community colleges to be more convenient to work and home. Tooker and Harris discussed the fact that land was rapidly disappearing on the open market and the price was continually rising.

Enter Carol Shearly, then a planner for the city of Sacramento, who informed these two visionaries that the city had identified a “town center” in addition to a regular school site for future development. Maybe, she said, there was a way to bring all of the educational needs together on one campus saving land and money, and enhancing services. Along the way, Shearly was promoted to Natomas manager and for the past three years, Shearly, Tooker, Library Director Dick Killian and American River Community College President Dr. Marie Smith have been meeting every Monday morning at the local Starbucks creating what will soon become a reality — the Natomas Town Center. The Town Center is a 2,000-pupil high school, a community college, a joint-use public library for the school, college, community and a regional park.

Tooker recalls the group agreeing to attend a meeting together back in 1999, where joint-use facilities were discussed, after which the group developed a pact for working together and resolving expected differences. Everyone agreed to pay for his own facility, but the question then became how could we raise all this money?

Eventually, Killian retired from his leadership post with the library. His replacement, Ann Marie Gold, stepped right in and has submitted a request to the state for 65 percent of the construction cost of the 25,000-sq.-ft. library. The college will build their 60,000-sq.-ft. facility in stages, with the first 20,000-sq.-ft. building ready by fall 2004. The school district was fortunate to benefit from California’s $3-billion bond approval last year, but Tooker said that the state expects a 50/50 match between the district and the state. The district planned to use developer fees and a local general obligation bond to fund its 50 percent, but given the state formula, they were still a little short. “When you put it all together,” says Tooker, “Fifty percent plus 50 percent really equals 80 percent of what you need, so we looked for another approach to make this work.”

It was at that point that the Natomas School Board issued a request for proposals for a new approach to finance the project, at least until they could have more time to raise the additional capital required. However, the seats were needed now. They simply could not wait until the funding was available. They had to try a new approach.

Natomas selected The Eastridge Companies, LLC, a national real estate development firm specializing in school and college facilities, its construction partner Turner Construction, and the architectural firm of Nacht and Lewis to structure a privately financed leased facility. This way, the school could be open August, 2004, and the district could defer the bulk of the cost until later.

The firm arranged for tax-exempt financing, hired the contractor, provided Natomas Schools with a guaranteed maximum price and guaranteed completion date, while Natomas raised additional capital. Through this arrangement, the firm will serve as the developer and owner’s representative so the district can focus its attention on providing a quality education for its students. Without having to hire additional staff, and funding the school at rates below two percent, the district will actually save money long term. The firm predicts that the district will be able to recover the entire cost of the development and construction.

“We could not be happier about the methods we are using to finance the facility,” says Tooker. “We are now able to use some of the local bond money raised to finance the high school, to complete needed repairs in other schools and start construction projects to deal with growth. Within the next two to three years, we will have adequate funds from the bond to pay off the lease, thereby saving money, correcting serious and potentially costly problems in other schools and still having our schools now when we needed them.”

Although Tooker is humble about his role in the development of both these financing and joint-use innovations, it is clear that his diligence and tenacity, along with the other team members from the college, city and public library, will pave new ground for other school districts nationwide. Tooker credits his school board members for the success of this project because they have been so supportive. “Even when new board members were elected,” says Tooker, “support for the project remained. Without them, this would not have happened.”

The various governing boards of each agency held at least one joint meeting during which the town center concept was thoroughly discussed and approved. According to Tooker, any one of the boards could have stopped the project, but at least for the Natomas community, reason prevailed and the community will benefit from the work of a handful of visionary public managers who were willing to stick their necks out for the benefit of their constituents.

For more information, contact David Tooker, Natomas Unified School District, at 916/567-5400.