Board May Again Put Bond Issue on Ballot : Education: Pleasant Valley Elementary School District considers asking voters for a third time to approve borrowing for repairs and expansion.

After twice saying no, Camarillo voters may be asked a third time to allow Pleasant Valley Elementary School District to borrow $55 million for upgrading school facilities and building a new elementary school in the fast-growing area.

Members of the Pleasant Valley school board, at its meeting Thursday, will consider whether to place a $55-million bond measure on the ballot for the June primary or hold a special election in April.

“We need new schools and repairs,” said Leonard J. Caligiuri, a board member. “It is imperative that something happen. We are planning for our future.”

District officials have tried unsuccessfully to get voters to approve the bonds since last year. Twice a majority of Camarillo voters have supported the measure. But passage requires a two-thirds vote.

In June, a $75-million bond measure--the biggest in county history--fell 7% short of the two-thirds majority needed to pass. Officials said the bonds would have provided for all the district’s growth for the next 25 years.

The district tried again in November, asking voters to approve a smaller bond measure that would have provided about $55 million for expansion and upgrades. It came within 2% of the required 66 2/3% vote.

“We were so close before, it was disappointing the measure was defeated,” Caligiuri said.

Voters across California have grown increasingly reluctant to approve bond measures as hard economic times grip the state, he said.

“In some communities it has taken four and five times to pass bonds,” Caligiuri said. “It’s a real education process to let voters know your needs are real.”

In Orange County, a transportation bond measure that increased sales taxes by half a cent on the dollar went to voters three times before it was approved in 1990.

“It does take awhile to sell the public on the facts,” Caligiuri said.

Board members will meet at 7 p.m. Thursday at Camarillo City Hall to vote on whether they want to try the bond measure again.

The board also must decide whether to place the measure before voters in a special election in April, which would cost the district about $44,000 in election costs, or wait until the regularly scheduled election in June. A regular election costs the district about $9,000. The deadline for putting the matter on the April ballot is Dec. 7, said board President Leonard Diamond.

If approved by voters, funding from the measure would go to renovate the district’s 14 aging schools and to build a new elementary school in the fast-growing Mission Oaks area in eastern Camarillo.

The measure would also provide money to build covered eating areas at district schools, which have no cafeterias. Each school day, the district’s 6,600 students eat lunch at tables on asphalt school playgrounds, with no roof overhead to protect them from the sun or the elements.

The district has trimmed $20 million from its original construction plans by eliminating a proposed new intermediate school and other new buildings.

If voters reject the $55-million bond measure, district officials said they will be faced with the possibility of converting to a year-round schedule.

In addition, officials said, they will be forced to use more portable buildings, bus students to other schools, change school district boundaries and convert storage space and other available rooms into classrooms.

“It’s more than frustrating, it’s ridiculous,” Diamond said. “We can’t be expected to educate students when there is no place for them to sit. More people need to realize that.”