OXNARD : Consultant to Study High School Bond

The Oxnard Union High School District will hire a consultant to help the district determine whether voters would support a bond measure to build a seventh high school in the city.

District trustees approved the hiring last week as a step toward building a new school in northeast Oxnard, where officials project an increase in students. The new school, which officials hope to open in 1993, would cost about $34 million for land purchase and construction.

Architectural plans for the school, to be built on Gonzales Road between Oxnard Boulevard and Rose Avenue, have already been submitted to the state, said Robert Brown, the district’s business manager.

However, the state does not have enough money to meet the demand for new schools statewide, despite the passage of a $1.6-billion bond last year.

The consultant will study how much money the district should seek, Brown said. There are six high schools in the city, including the Frontier continuation school. The report, which will cost $15,500, will also recommend whether a measure should cover just the cost of the seventh high school or whether it should include an eighth school that officials project will be needed by 1996.

The district is hiring the same consultant that advised officials in the city’s elementary district in 1988, when Oxnard voters passed a $40-million bond for new elementary schools.

School bond measures require two-thirds approval by the voters. Some recent bond measures in Ventura County have failed, including a $75-million measure in June in Camarillo’s Pleasant Valley Elementary School District and a $5-million measure in the Santa Paula Union High School District last November.