Vista Pupils Face Double Sessions

The Vista Unified School District, the second fastest-growing district in California, faces double sessions in the wake of voters’ rejection Tuesday of a desperately sought $38.8-million bond measure to build new schools and fix old ones.

It was the second such voter rebuke in a year, leaving school administrators to wonder Wednesday what went wrong as they contemplated double sessions and yet a third bond campaign.

“What it comes down to, our parents didn’t get to the polls, it’s simple as that,” said Manuel Robles, communications director for the district of nearly 18,000 kindergarten through high school students in Vista, parts of Carlsbad, Oceanside and San Marcos and unincorporated county area. “Double sessions are here. When they kick in has to be decided by the board.”

Semiofficial tallies from the county registrar of voters showed that Proposition C failed to get the two-thirds majority needed to pass in Tuesday’s election. The vote was 8,255, or 62%, for the bonds and 5,060, or 38% against. Overall voter turnout was a modest 27.7%.

Although Robles believes too many parents failed to mobilize behind Measure C, a different explanation came from Bruce Harter, principal of Vista High School.

“When you have to get 66 2/3%, you’re fighting an incredible uphill battle,” Harter said. “Now we have control by the minority.”

Last November, a $63-million bond measure was defeated after brisk opposition. This time, district administrators and school boosters thought they were riding high as they pared the bond issue back to $38.8 million, encountered no organized opposition and ran a tightly orchestrated campaign to win support.

But they were disappointed again, and are left with stopgap solutions to chronic problems.

The district has already decided to begin year-round classes next summer, mainly to deal with ballooning enrollment in the lower grades. “We have grown at K-3 (grade) level at least 65% over the last three years,” Robles said.

The district’s nearly 18,000 enrollment is predicted to double by the year 2036, and administrators insist they at least need three more elementary schools now, plus rehabilitation of seven older schools. Already in use are 306 portable classrooms.

Under Proposition C, $27.6 million would have gone for building new schools and other facilities and the rest for rehabilitation of structures as much as 51 years old.

“At some schools, kids have to wait 10 to 15 minutes to use the restroom,” Robles said.

But Vista is not alone in its crowded conditions. Other North County school districts, notably Escondido and San Marcos, accommodate a third of their elementary students in portable classrooms.

Robles expects double sessions in two years and another bond drive to be launched in about a year. He thinks the outcome will be rosier as crowding finally persuades parents that bonds are crucial.

“The community is going to have to see we’re in dire straits and it’s real” before approving a bond measure, he said.

Under Proposition C, bonds would have been paid off by a property-tax increase of about $45 per $100,000 assessed valuation.

In Encinitas, taxpayers’ reluctance to ante up clearly figured in the dumping of Proposition A, a $25-million plan for new parks.

“It was a pocketbook issue,” said a glum Nancy Orr, a leader of the effort to buy 150 acres for parkland or to enlarge existing community parks. “A good number of people were sensitive to relinquishing any coins for taxes.”

Passage would have cost about $55 a year per $100,000 assessed valuation.

Orr said another park bond campaign is probable in about a year, and she believes there’s pressure to hurry.

“The land is disappearing and prices are skyrocketing. That just whittles away the opportunities.”

A key foe of Proposition A, George Wardner, said it failed because “somebody did a lousy job of selling.” He argued that voters rejected the measure because, in part, city government may have pushed the matter too hard.

He said voters wouldn’t buy proponents’ statements that the city’s park situation is poor. Though he agrees that the city owns little parkland outright, he felt voters were fundamentally aware that Encinitas is rich in public beaches, county and state parklands.