Both Cities Need Bond

Voters in the Poway Unified School District will be asked Tuesday to approve a $58.4-million bond issue, which, when combined with $20 million in developers’ fees, would be used to build a high school, a middle school and three elementary schools in the fast-growing district.

The district has 20,000 students, but its 19 schools can accommodate only 16,000, leaving about 4,000 students in portable classrooms and trailers. By 1995, the district expects 32,100 students.

The bond would mean that the owner of a home assessed at $150,000 will pay an average of $4 a month over the 20-year life of the bonds--or about $50 a year. That’s little to ask, especially in light of 10 years of tax savings from Proposition 13, which cut the property tax rate approximately in half.

But some Poway residents are upset because much of the Poway Unified School District lies in the City of San Diego, and all of the new schools would be in San Diego. They feel it’s unfair for Poway residents to have to pay for schools outside their city when they cannot control growth in those areas.

Their frustration is understandable, their reasoning flawed. This is not a City of Poway issue. It’s a school district issue, and San Diego residents in the Poway school district, as well as Poway residents, will be paying the added taxes. Also, many of the newer San Diego residents will, in effect, be paying twice because developers’ fees undoubtedly were part of the price of their homes.

The new schools also will help relieve overcrowding in City of Poway schools, because many of the San Diego students now attend those schools.

What is more troubling about this bond measure is that the school district has rejected the notion of year-round schools to relieve overcrowding.

We agree that additional schools are the best solution, if financially possible, and urge voters in the Poway Unified School District to vote for the bond measure, which needs a two-thirds majority to pass.

But the school district also should reconsider year-round schools, because money for school construction is hard to come by, and, in a fast-growing area, schools cannot be built fast enough to keep up with growth.