High School Still Has Many Fire Hazards : Bond issue: Measure A would provide $5 million to renovate the cracking, peeling landmark.

Two years after officials gave buildings at Santa Paula High School a failing grade, the city’s Fire Department is still concerned that the school contains serious hazards.

But fire officials have not cited the school because they realize that the school district lacks the money needed for repairs.

Fire and school officials are counting on two-thirds of Santa Paula voters to approve a bond measure on June 5 that would provide $5 million to renovate the cracking, peeling historical landmark.

“Until the buildings really got into the shape they are in now, nobody really understood,” said Donna Nelson, who has served 15 years on the Santa Paula Union High School District Board of Trustees. “I don’t know what will happen if we don’t get this bond through. We certainly won’t get any money from the state.”

If Measure A passes, homeowners would annually pay $30 per $100,000 in assessed valuation over the next 25 years to finance repairs for the city’s only public high school.

Supporters of the bond measure say the high school, with buildings that date back to the 1930s, is a stately but decaying structure that badly needs attention.

It was at its worst in December, 1988, when fire officials found 217 hazards at the 13-acre school, 41 of which were serious, fire prevention inspector Dave Mendoza said Wednesday.

The chemistry lab contained so many outdated chemicals, Mendoza recalled, “I thought, ‘If they break something in there, we’re going to have some dead people, including firemen.’ ”

School authorities removed the chemicals and corrected most of the violations within six months. But about half of the serious fire hazards remain uncorrected, and more are found each time Mendoza makes his weekly inspections, he said.

“It’s like a cardboard cake-- everything looks good on the outside,” said Scott Rushing, a member of a community group supporting the bond initiative. “There’s so many things wrong with it.”

Fire officials agree that the school buildings are the worst in the city. “The high school has got the most fire code problems, numerically speaking,” Fire Chief Paul Skeels said.

Paint and plaster in most of the classrooms have peeled away, walls are cracked, windows boarded up, gym showers broken and ceiling tiles missing. The deterioration is not only an eyesore, it is a hazard to the 1,300 students, officials said.

Last year, a falling ceiling tile nearly hit a teacher, said Carolina Erie, school district superintendent.

Loose tiles are now secured by nails, maintenance supervisor Pete Hernandez said.

Although school officials hope that the bond issue will save the high school from half a century of deterioration, some say they fear that it will fail to garner the two-thirds vote required for passage.

In 1955, Santa Paula voters approved a bond measure to finance the expansion of the school but defeated two other measures to raise money for the school district in 1958 and 1959. School officials have not attempted to place another measure on the ballot, partly out of fear that it would be defeated at the polls, Nelson said.

The district’s financial problems make construction of a new school impossible, Nelson said. Three years ago, the district was $500,000 in the red and had to cut back, she said.

For the past five years, no repairs have been made while officials waited for construction allocations from the state, Nelson said. A statewide ballot initiative for $800 million in school construction contains no money to refurbish Santa Paula High School.

“Now, as far as finances are concerned, we are all right, but we have nothing to play with in the way of maintenance,” Nelson said.

The school district is expected to receive more than $300,000 from the state this summer to make roof repairs, Erie said. But there is no money to repair rain damage to ceilings.

In 1939, the school was built for $329,000 under President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal programs to put people to work. The school has tiled roofs and arched hallways, and the auditorium is decorated with murals.

Bob Raitt, 68, a civics teacher for 34 years, advocates preservation of the school as one of Ventura County’s oldest buildings.

But the stylized architecture has created problems in finding doors, doorknobs and other fixtures, Raitt said. Some fixtures are older than the buildings themselves. Window casings were taken from the first high school built in 1914 and used in the new school two decades later, he said.

Raitt contends that both teachers and students have been affected by working in classrooms that are in disrepair.

“Paint peeling off walls hurts student morale,” Raitt said. “Subconsciously it teaches students that the public puts their education on a low priority.”

Fire officials plan to continue inspecting the buildings weekly to make sure that no new problems have surfaced, Mendoza said. “Even if they get the money, the corrections are going to take a while,” he said.