Officially known as the Kindergarten-University Public Education Facilities Bond Act of 2004, the measure will relieve overcrowding and provide funds for safety repairs and upgrades at elementary, middle and high schools and at community colleges and universities. If approved, community colleges throughout the state will receive $920 million over the next two years.

Approximately $11 million of the funds for Cuesta College would be used to construct a 30,050 square- foot Learning Resource Center/Library at the North County Campus. The new facility would be the second permanent building on the five-year old campus, which serves more than 2,000 students during the fall and spring semesters. It would provide critical library, classroom/laboratory and staff support functions for instructional programs that are now housed in temporary, modular buildings. Proposition 55 would also provide $1.4 million in funding to equip the new facility.

Another $560,000 for planning and working drawings would be funded for the reconstruction of science laboratories on the Cuesta College San Luis Obispo Campus. The project would eventually reconstruct the existing chemistry and biology laboratories and provide an additional 2,000 square-foot lab consisting of a greenhouse and a lath house.

Proposition 55 also would provide $520,000 for the planning and working drawings of a 17,480 square-foot Trades and Technology Complex at the North County Campus. The new facility would provide laboratory space for students taking automotive technology, engineering, construction and agricultural classes.

During the second year, 2005-2006, Proposition 55 is scheduled to provide an additional $12 million for the reconstruction and construction of the San Luis Obispo Campus Science Laboratories and North County Campus Trades and Technology Complex.