Parents and others who live in the Walnut Valley Unified School District will be voting on a $208 million bond on the November ballot; money that will be used for improvements on the Diamond Bar High School campus as well as for those at other schools in the district.

According to DBHS Interim Principal Denis Paul, about $40 million of the bond money would go to the high school.

“It doesn’t raise existing taxes and it allows for our renewal of technology,” Paul said.

In July, the district’s Board of Trustees decided to place the bond, also known as Measure O, on the November ballot, and stated that its purpose to “ensure that students are skilled in the use of modern technologies and have a solid background in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.”

If 55 percent of voters from within the district boundaries are in favor of the bond on the day of the voting, which will take place November 3, then the district promises to use the tax money to upkeep the WVUSD campuses in areas such as technology, security systems, earthquake security, and the lighting and air conditioning systems of classrooms among other updates.

“I know that a lot of things would happen even in December, in the acquisition of technology,” Paul said. “I believe we would be one of the first groups to see construction, but it does take a little bit of time.”

Those who uphold the bond say that it will not only in improve the campus overall, but also influence the schools to spend more time and resources in promoting the STEM fields through better lab equipment and more training for teachers.

“We have world-class teachers and we want to have world-class facility for them, and make sure that they have that ongoing,” Paul said. Some of the main tools that teachers would receive would be updates in computer technology.

For Diamond Bar High School in particular, the bond may mean more construction in coming years, which will eventually bring about new classrooms with updated features.

“We need the facility for science classrooms so that, every student can take four years of science,” Paul said. “We don’t have that facility and that’s a shame.”

The district also seeks potential members for a Citizen’s Oversight Committee, which must be composed of at least seven volunteers, one of whom must be a district parent.

The Committee would monitor the progress of the bond and assure the community that the wants of the residents are met effectively.

If Measure O pulls through, it will be the next successful bond since the bond measures that helped pay for the math building and the aquatic center.