CAMARILLO : Schools Authorize New Bond Election

The Pleasant Valley School District Board of Trustees has approved a $55-million bond election for Nov. 5, barely five months after voters defeated a $75-million bond measure.

Overcrowding caused by climbing enrollment is prompting the Camarillo school district to repeat the bond election sooner rather than later, Assistant Supt. Howard Hamilton said.

“This year we can barely accommodate our students,” Hamilton said. In 1992-93, “we’ll have a real crunch,” he said.

The money from the bond issue would go mainly toward building three new elementary schools to meet a projected 50% enrollment increase over the next 18 years, Hamilton said.

The bond funds would also go toward repairing and refurbishing the district’s existing schools.

The June 4 bond issue lost by only about 556 votes out of a total 8,287 cast. Although 60% of the voters approved the measure, state law requires a two-thirds majority for such a bond issue.

School officials think that the voters who rejected the measure may have been scared by the prospect of higher property assessments at a time when the state budget crisis threatens higher taxes, Hamilton said.

The board hopes to ease this fear by lowering the bond amount by $20 million, he said. The reduction means delaying plans for a new intermediate school.

Property assessments would increase by about the same amount under the reduced bond measure, by $35 a year for every $100,000 of assessed value. But property owners would pay this amount for about 35 years, instead of 50 years under the higher bond measure.