The Monterey Peninsula Unified School District is getting some much needed relief, thanks to voters who passed Measure P to help the struggling district.

Measure P grants the district a $110 million bond measure that will cover the cost of repairs and upgrades for 24 schools. The district was suffocating under the budget cuts made statewide, leaving the future of the 11,000 student district in question.

Detractors of the measure say they may as well have cut a blank check to the school, since they didn’t provide a list of priorities for the money. They fear the administrators could just spend the money as they please without a real plan set forth.

MPUSD saw earlier attempts at bond measures fail in the past, such as a $158 million measure that came soon after a rotting ceiling collapsed on two students at Monterey High in 2000.

The exact number of votes is not yet known, however, with 21 percent of the votes counted, the measure  already had 70 percent approval.

Popularity: 36% [?]