OAK PARK : District to Issue Bonds for Schools
Oak Park Unified School District board members have decided to issue $4.5 million in bonds to complete construction of a middle school and begin work on a new elementary school.
The board voted 4 to 0 this week to issue the bonds, which will be repaid from assessments charged to Oak Park property owners.
About $1.5 million of the $4.5 million will be used to finish building and furnishing Medea Creek Middle School, scheduled to open next fall, said Stanley Mantooth, the district’s director of administrative services. The rest will be set aside for a new elementary school.
Voters did not have to approve the new bond issue. When the district was founded in 1977, Oak Park voters gave the school district the authority to issue up to $40 million in bonds for building schools. The district has more than $18.3 million in bonds outstanding.
Ken Prosser, director of school business for the Ventura County superintendent of schools, told the board it is impossible to predict how the new bond issue will affect the assessment rate charged to property owners.
In the current fiscal year, Oak Park property owners pay about $3.20 for every $1,000 of assessed value.
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