LOCAL ELECTIONS / PLEASANT VALLEY ELEMENTARY SCHOOL DISTRICT : Officials Urge $75-Million Bond Plan

Officials in Camarillo’s Pleasant Valley Elementary School District are pushing for the passage in Tuesday’s election of a $75-million school bond measure to raise money to build new schools and fix up old ones.

Called Measure G, it is the largest school bond measure in Ventura County history.

Faced with aging buildings, a burgeoning student population and shrinking state resources, officials in the 6,500-student district say the bond measure is the only way the district can raise funds to stay abreast of needed repairs and keep pace with growth.

“We can’t count on the state,” said Assistant Supt. Howard Hamilton, referring to the state’s projected deficit and a proposed $2.1 billion in cuts to public school funding statewide. “And we have no income to repay a loan, so that really puts us in a bind.”

Four of the district’s elementary schools--Las Posas, Los Primeros, Camarillo Heights and Santa Rosa--are at least 30 years old and in need of renovation. Needed repairs include removing asbestos, replacing plumbing, retiling leaky roofs and rewiring electrical systems to accommodate computers, Hamilton said.

Over the next 18 years, officials project that the district will grow by 3,600 students, and two schools already face overcrowding. Among them is Las Colinas Elementary, which by next year will be over its 1,032-student capacity, even though 220 seventh- and eighth-grade students were bused this year from Las Colinas to Monte Vista Intermediate School.

And Santa Rosa Elementary School, which has been growing by about 70 students a year for the last three years, will also reach its capacity next year, despite the recent addition of new classrooms, officials said.

Like many districts, Pleasant Valley is facing a projected deficit for the 1991-92 school year. The district must trim about $1.8 million to balance its $25-million budget, officials estimate.

District officials have held 13 meetings this spring and handed out flyers to parents at school open houses to build support for Measure G. Supporters of the measure plan to canvass Camarillo neighborhoods this weekend.

In a letter to the community last month seeking support for the measure, Supt. Shirley F. Carpenter said the bond “may be the only solution to the funding crisis.”

Although Measure G has had no organized opposition, it must be approved by two-thirds of the voters. Camarillo homeowners would pay about $35 a year per $100,000 of the assessed value of their homes for about 20 years, Hamilton said.

If the measure passes, the $75 million would fund the needs outlined in a district master plan for the next 20 to 25 years, Hamilton said. About $43 million would be used to build three new elementary schools and an intermediate school, and $23 million would go toward renovating existing schools. The remainder would be used as a cushion against inflation.

The first school to be built would be Woodcreek Elementary School, at the intersection of Woodcreek Road and Lynnwood Drive in the Mission Oaks area. Construction of the school would relieve some of the overcrowding at Las Colinas and Santa Rosa schools, officials said.

The district already owns the six-acre Woodcreek property, and constructing the school would cost $7.3 million. The city’s Parks and Recreation Department has agreed to maintain a 4.4-acre park and playground adjacent to the school. Woodcreek Elementary would open in September, 1993.

The last school bond measure in Camarillo, on the ballot 20 years ago, was approved by the city’s voters, Hamilton said. If Measure G fails, he said, “we’ll have to reassess and try to come up with another plan.”