Simi Schools : Paper Blamed for Defeat of Bond Issue

Simi Valley voters have narrowly defeated a $35-million bond issue for renovation of area schools, and backers of the measure say a local newspaper is responsible.

Officials of the Simi Valley Unified School District said that a guest column and three letters printed in Monday’s edition of the Enterprise newspaper had a negative impact on Tuesday’s election because it unfairly presented only the views of measure opponents.

“Our local publication stabbed us in the back the day before the election,” said Simi Valley school board member Mimi Shapiro.

The measure, which required approval of two-thirds of those voting, received a 63.4% majority--4,337 votes in favor and 2,500 against--the county registrar’s office said. The city has 41,247 registered voters.

Results Won’t Change

An additional 366 absentee ballots that were cast have not yet been counted. But those ballots are not enough to change the outcome of the election, said Ruth Schepler, assistant registrar.

Jaque Kampschroer, Enterprise managing editor, denied that the newspaper--which covers Moorpark and Simi Valley--sought to defeat the measure. In fact, Kampschroer said, newspaper editorials endorsed the bond issue before the election.

“I’m not surprised that the district would want to find someone to blame defeat on,” Kampschroer said. “Newspapers in a small community are often a target.”

Kampschroer said that editors approve letters and columns before they are printed but do not decide which of them will be published on a given day. That decision is made by newspaper production employees based on which letters and columns happen to fit the space available, she said.

But district Supt. John Duncan said he believes the newspaper intentionally sought to confuse voters the day before the election by running only arguments against the ballot measure. The letters and column were especially damaging because “charges made at the last minute can’t be refuted,” Duncan said.

Tom Ely, a member of the Ventura County Community College District Board of Trustees and author of two opinion columns questioning the bond measure, including one that appeared Monday, said the measure was defeated because not enough voters believed that the board has handled district money prudently.

“I don’t think that I can write two editorials and affect 40% of the voters,” Ely said. “If I thought I held that much power, I would run for king.”

Wants New Board

Ely said he did not dispute the need for school renovations in his articles. “I would even head the next bond issue campaign . . . but first the current school board has to resign,” he said.

School district officials said money from the bond issue is needed for extensive repairs to the district’s 27 schools, most of which are 25 years old. About $22 million of the bond money would have been spent on air-conditioning and heating units and another $4 million would have been used to repair blacktop for playgrounds and parking lots and for sprinkler systems, district officials said.

The rest of the money would have been used to finance the bond issue, officials said. Passage of the measure would have cost the average Simi Valley homeowner a maximum of $69.47 annually over 25 years.

Board members say they must now decide whether to call another bond election, possibly in November. Before that happens, they want to hear from the community, board member Helen Beebe said.

The district spent about $3,000 on the election and used about 500 volunteers who campaigned door to door, district officials said.