Schools Strain to Cope With Flood of Students

The young woman was distraught as she spoke to the school board in Moreno Valley, a fast-growing new city east of Riverside.

“When we bought our house, we thought, ‘Gee, that’s nice, there’s a school right in the neighborhood,’ ” she said. “But now our kids are being bused two miles to some place we never heard of.”

The woman’s complaint is familiar in Moreno Valley and in many other booming “Inland Empire” communities, where a rapidly swelling population of young families with school-age children is outstripping the ability of local school districts to provide needed classrooms.

In Moreno Valley, enrollment is increasing 12% a year, classes are taught in former pizza parlors and about one-third of the pupils are bused because of overcrowding. More than 125 “temporary” classrooms are being used.

The Chino Unified School District uses 84 portable classrooms and has ordered 38 more for next year.

‘Nothing More Permanent’

“In the school business, there’s nothing more permanent than a ‘temporary’ classroom,” said Scott Shira, director of facilities planning for the Redlands schools.

Nine of the 12 school districts at the western end of San Bernardino County face problems of overcrowding, according to a report prepared for the county superintendent of schools.

Since the 1978 passage of Proposition 13, the state constitutional amendment limiting local property taxes, the state has been responsible for building permanent school facilities, but the need far exceeds available funds.

Assemblyman Bill Leonard (R--Redlands), a member of the Assembly Education Committee, said that meeting statewide school building needs would cost about $5 billion but that only $325 million to $350 million a year is available, from a bond issue approved by voters in 1984 and from tidelands oil revenue.

The State Allocation Board decides which school districts get how much money--after a long and complicated process that has been much criticized by school officials.

Local officials say it takes two to three years to get state money for a new building, even if everything goes smoothly.

Special Fees

In the meantime, districts like those in Chino and Moreno Valley must scratch around for funds to build or lease temporary structures.

Usually the money comes from builders and developers in the form of special fees.

To some, this seems fair enough, because the new homes and apartments are generating the children who are overflowing the schools.

Even some developers accept the necessity for the fees.

“After Proposition 13, development fees have to be accepted,” said William A. Wren, an executive with the Chevron Land Development Co., which is building Ontario Center, a large commercial and residential project on the site of the former Ontario Motor Speedway.

Others disagree.

“Philosophically, fees for development are unfair,” said Dennis Mansfield, executive director of the Building Industry Assn. in Riverside. “Everyone should pay for schools, not just developers.”

Even builders who accept the inevitability of fees--for roads, sewers, street lights and flood control facilities as well as for schools--think they have risen too high in some communities.

Gary Brown, executive director of the Building Industry Assn.’s Baldy View chapter in western San Bernardino County, said high development fees are squeezing out potential middle-income home buyers because builders typically pass on the fees in the form of higher housing prices.

According to Brown, $9,000 in total development fees--a sum he said is not unusual when roads, sewers, street lights, schools and other facilities are included--can add more than $100 a month to the payment on a 30-year mortgage.

In most cases, development fees pay only for temporary classrooms, not for permanent facilities like libraries or gymnasiums.

A few school districts have tried to impose fees high enough to pay for permanent school buildings--as high as $6,000 per new housing unit in some cases--but have encountered stiff opposition from developers.

Another way to build permanent schools is to establish a special assessment district, using developers’ fees to pay debts on bonds that are sold to pay for the schools.

Legislation authored in 1980 by Assemblyman Mike Roos (D-Los Angeles) and former Assemblyman Henry J. Mello (R-Watsonville) made such special assessment districts possible.

New Senior High School

In the Corona-Norco Unified School District, 10 developers agreed last year to establish a Mello-Roos district, paying fees that range from $2,079 to $4,054 per housing unit. The fees will pay the interest on $11 million worth of bonds, most of which will go to build a new senior high school.

“The object is to have money in hand to build schools when they’re needed,” said Corona-Norco Supt. Donald Helms. “Otherwise, you’re always running behind” the need.

Corona-Norco and Mountain View, a small elementary school district in the city of Ontario, are the only districts in the Inland Empire that have been able to persuade developers to participate in a special assessment district.

DEVELOPER FEES

Since the 1978 passage of Proposition 13, the state constitutional amendment limiting local property taxes, cities have imposed “developer” fees on new construction projects. These fees pay for much of the development’s infrastructure, which include schools, parks, streets and flood control facilities.

Lewis Homes, an Upland development firm, has built thousands of homes in the Inland Empire since the 1950s. Following are amounts the firm would pay in developer fees for a “typical,” three-bedroom house selling for about $110,000 in Upland, a pre-Proposition 13 city, and in Rancho Cucamonga, a post-Proposition 13 city.

RANCHO CUCAMONGA

City fees Park development $906 Storm drains $695 Systems development (includes streets, bridges, street lights, etc.) $708 Community beautification $413 School fees Elementary school* $1,100 High school $600 Other fees Sewer and water (paid to Cucamonga County Water District $950 Sewer development * * $295 Water development * * $545 Fees to special assessment districts (street landscaping, fire protection and flood control) $374 Additional city fees for permits, inspections, sewer and water connections and other charges $1,382 Total $7,968

* If the house is in the Central Elementary School District, one of the city’s three elementary school districts, there is an additional “renegade” fee of $903. * * These fees were recently added and do not apply to housing tracts that were approved earlier. UPLAND

City fees Parks $240 Storm drains $175 systems Development $275 School fees High school (no elementary) $600 Other fees Sewer and water $950 Sewer and water hookup $600 Additional city fees for permits, inspections, sewer and water connections and other charges $1,382 Total $4,222

* Upland does not have any special assesssment districts.

PUBLIC SCHOOL ENROLLMENT

enrollment % change School District 1975 1980 1984-85 1985-86 1975-85 (est.) Alta Loma Elementary 2,138 4,041 4,952 5,000 +132% Chaffey Joint Union High 11,851 12,019 12,817 13,759 +8 Colton Joint Unified 10,634 9,688 10,948 11,700 +3 Cucamonga Elementary 800 1,239 1,362 1,393 +74 Corona-Norco Unified 17,427 17,043 16,608 17,008 -2 Etiwanda Elementary 400 600 800 1,711 +328 Fontana Unified ---- 12,160 14,990 ? ---- Moreno Valley Unified ---- 7,375 11,540 13,696 ---- Mountain View Elementary 67 765 983 ? ---- Ontario-Montclair Elementary 15,119 14,159 18,850 ? ---- Redlands Unified 10,615 10,642 11,074 11,150 +5 Rialto Unified 11,406 11,015 12,386 13,060 +15 Riverside Unified 24,353 23,990 24,009 ? ---- San Bernardino Unified 31,945 28,971 29,956 29,768 -7 Upland Unified 5,758 5,810 5,660 5,722 -1

No. of ‘temporary’ portable classrooms in use (and planned School District for next year) Alta Loma Elementary 23 (6) Chaffey Joint Union High 22 Colton Joint Unified 45 (4) Cucamonga Elementary 2 (2) Corona-Norco Unified 31 (14) Etiwanda Elementary 9 Fontana Unified 96 (7) Moreno Valley Unified 139 Mountain View Elementary 16 Ontario-Montclair Elementary 38 (3) Redlands Unified 25 (4) Rialto Unified 22 (17) Riverside Unified 172 (6) San Bernardino Unified 358 (11) Upland Unified 11

These figures are for selected school districts in the inland valley portions of Riverside and San Bernardino counties.