If Bond Passes, Budget Would Boost Campuses

Under the state budget proposed by Gov. George Deukmejian on Wednesday, El Camino College would receive $6.3 million to double the size of its main library and $1.4 million to build a day-care facility.

Cal State Dominguez Hills would get $372,000 to re-equip its library under the draft budget, a $53.7-billion state spending plan for the fiscal year that begins July 1.

But there is a catch. Those allocations are predicated on legislative and voter approval this year of a $900-million higher education bond issue, officials with the governor’s office point out.

“We’d have to go back to the drawing board if the bond issue doesn’t pass,” said Jordan Montano, a higher education specialist with Gov. Deukmejian’s finance office.

The $6.3-million El Camino College library allocation would be used to add a second floor to the facility so it can accommodate 1,000 students and 300,000 books. Currently, the library’s capacity is 500 students and 125,000 books, college spokeswoman Mary Ann Keating said.

The $1.4 million for a day-care center would finance construction of a one-story building on what is now a parking lot south of the campus, across Redondo Beach Boulevard.

Work on the center is scheduled to begin next fall, and construction of the library addition is slated to start sometime in 1991, according to Don Sorsabal, the college’s vice president of administrative services.

Sorsabal said the day-care center would eventually accommodate 140 infants and preschool youngsters, with children of El Camino College students receiving priority for admission. Students in the college’s child development program would teach preschoolers at the center as part of their training, he said.

“We have our students doing teaching outside at private institutions,” Sorsabal said. “This would allow us to bring them into an atmosphere over which we have complete control.”

The $372,000 capital allocation for Cal State Dominguez Hills would pay for the purchase of computers, book stacks, desks, chairs, and other equipment and furniture as part of a $1.2-million library remodeling program. A great deal of space at the cramped library is taken up by administrative offices, which are being moved out as part of the remodeling work, according to university spokesman Greg Klerkx.

Gov. Deukmejian’s budget also includes $752,000 to buy equipment for a planned vocational training center and $12.8 million for construction of a sports complex at Southwest Los Angeles College.

According to Bernard Ancheta, the college’s vice president for administration, the sports facility is scheduled to be built by the spring of 1991 and will include three basketball courts, four racquetball courts, a weight training room and 10 tennis courts.