Napa Valley Unified School District could fall $7 million short of completing projects approved by voters in 2002, despite capable fiscal management on the part of the district, according to a recent report from the Citizens’ Oversight Committee for Measures M and G.

In 2002, voters approved Measure M, a $95 million school bond to upgrade and expand school facilities. In 2006, voters passed Measure G, a $183 million bond that includes the construction of a new high school in American Canyon.

To date, between 80 to 85 percent of projects under Measure M are complete, said Jim King, Citizens’ Oversight Committee chairperson. The big ticket items under Measure M — including the modernization of the Education Center and District Auditorium — are already complete.

But on Thursday Don Evans, NVUSD director of school planning and construction, said the district may only have funds to complete 125-130 of the 161 proposed projects under Measure M. A significant increase in construction costs since 2002, he said, resulted in a projected budget shortfall of about $7 million.

Projects on the chopping block include the replacement of storage facilities at all NVUSD campuses, said Evans. Other items at risk include replacement of old “relocatables” — or temporary classrooms — and restrooms. Evans said the district will also consider scaling back some smaller projects or looking for funding elsewhere. Evans notes that this is only a proposed list of projects to trim.

“Although we weren’t able to complete all of the projects originally contemplated, we worked hard to focus on our priorities, find additional funding when possible, and scale back in some areas,” he said.

Evans cited the dramatic rise in construction costs since 2002 as the culprit for the shortfall, even though he built in room for inflation in the Measure M budget.

Napa Valley College suffered more significantly from the spike in costs in recent years, estimating a $70 million deficit toward completing projects approved by voters in 2002 under a $133.8 million bond.

“We have had to contend with the same as everyone else in the state with rising costs of construction,” said Evans. “During that period of time, Measure M has been worked on by the school district. We have had to make some changes and prioritize our projects.”

“Fortunately,” he said, “we had a large number of projects that would have been nice to have completed, but probably didn’t have as big an impact on the schools as some other things.”

Evans said the district will continue work on the projects “we felt were most important to the community, and in many cases, of course, those were the most expensive ones, but at the same time they were also the most visible.”

The district is also awaiting word on possible matching funds from the state, he said.

No Measure G projects will be cut, said Evans, noting that the list of projects is much smaller than that of Measure M. “Everything is important in Measure G,” he said. “That is why we are going at such a fast pace.”

Progress is currently under way on Measure G projects, with groundbreaking for the American Canyon high school slated for May. Design for the renovation of Memorial Stadium is approved, and the district recently hired an architect for the modernization of New Technology High.

Evans also said the district is consistently coming in under cost for Measure G projects because of the competitive nature of the construction business over the past year.

“Now, the economy is good for building,” he said.

All in all, Evans feels the district has “made out well” compared to other schools and districts that passed bonds in and around 2002.

The Citizens’ Oversight Committee — formed to provide independent, citizen-level oversight of the bonds — praised the work of Evans and his staff in handling the increase in costs, noting that “the results could have been dire.” The report went on to say that in comparison with the effects on other bond projects around the state, “NVUSD accomplished far more than was initially thought possible.”

The committee found that all funds have been properly expended and that there was “no incident of waste or improper expenditures.”