Vista Schools, Students in Need of a Yes Vote

Thousands of parents in Vista have come face to face with the financial limits of Proposition 13 and the fact that growth does not pay for itself. About 6,000 of the 17,000 students in the Vista Unified School District are attending school in portable classrooms.

The temporary classrooms are not bad, per se. But when they are added to existing campuses, the extra students put a strain on libraries, cafeterias, computer learning centers and playgrounds.

To help alleviate the crowding, Vista--like many other districts--wisely decided to go to year-round schools, starting next year. In effect, this will increase the capacity of existing schools by about a third and take care of most of today’s crowding.

But officials in this rapidly growing North County city say the schools will be out of space again in two or three years.

State school construction funds have run out. So, for the second year in a row, Vista Unified is asking voters to tax themselves to pay for schools.

Last year’s $63-million bond measure received 59.9% of the vote, short of the necessary two-thirds majority. This year, school officials have scaled back the bond measure to $38.8 million. The money would be used for new schools and to renovate some older ones. If Proposition C is passed Nov. 7, the 20-year bond will cost property owners $109.57 for each $100,000 assessed valuation in the first year, a cost that will decline to $12.72 in the last year. That averages out to an annual tax of $45.83 per $100,000 assessed value.

Although no one likes tax increases, this one is necessary.

Vista Unified is the second-fastest growing school district in the state, and it expects to add about 11,000 students by 1995.

The growth has not paid for itself. Developer fees for schools are limited by state law and cover less than half of the cost of building schools. School officials say that financing methods tried elsewhere, such as raising taxes only for residents of new housing developments, would be more costly and insufficient to meet the needs.

Newcomers will bear a larger part of the bond’s tax burden because property assessments are based on purchase price. But the bond will benefit the whole community, by renovating some schools and building others, and the whole community should help pay for it.

We recommend a yes vote on Proposition C.