FILLMORE : School Board OKs $3.2-Million Project

The Fillmore Unified School District has approved spending $3.2 million to build a gymnasium and outdoor covered patio on a site originally intended for a junior high school.

Last November voters defeated an $8-million bond measure sponsored by the district that would have provided funding for construction of the school at A and 3rd streets in Fillmore.

Dist. Supt. Marlene Davis said that although the district needs a new school, not just the facilities approved Tuesday, its hands are tied because of the failed bond measure and the improbability of getting state funding.

“The bottom line is that we have $3.2 million and what we said to the architect is, ‘What can we build for $3.2 million?’ ” Davis said. “What we can build is a gymnasium and a pavilion, and that is all.”

Trustee Tom Spitler, the only one on the five-member board to vote against spending the money, said he questions “whether we can really get much educational value for a gymnasium and a locker room.” Spitler said he would rather hold on to the money until the school district could afford to build “more educationally oriented facilities.”

But Davis said that building a school would cost $10 million and that voters are unlikely to approve another bond measure necessary to finance it, given the defeat of the proposed bond in November.

Fillmore Junior High School Principal Mario Contini said the gym and patio, which will be built on a part of the land at A and 3rd streets, will relieve crowding at the school. Contini said his school uses Fillmore High School’s cafeteria, library, gymnasium and other facilities.