Fallbook Schools Put Bond Issue on Ballot : Education: Compromise vote calls for $20-million bond on June ballot.

The Fallbrook school board voted 4 to 1 Monday night to place a $20-million general obligation bond issue on the June ballot.

It would provide the funds to refurbish Fallbrook’s only high school and to launch construction of a second high school.

The compromise measure, if approved by voters, would allow for construction to begin on the second school, but it falls short of the $45 million needed to complete the facility.

“The possibility of winning a $45-million bond issue in these economic times would be very, very difficult,” board member Patrick Miller said. “This plan is a belt-tightening proposal.”

The cost would be $12 to $15 a year year per $100,000 of property valuation.

In most cities, building a new high school means finding an acceptable site and persuading voters to raise taxes. In rural Fallbrook, with its one-high-school, it also means a struggle over identity.

“There are those who still think that we are the avocado capital of the world and a little agricultural community, and they want to keep thinking that way,” said Roy Johnson, president of the Fallbrook Chamber of Commerce.

Many find the notion of a Fallbrook school with more than 3,000 students inconceivable, and, to them, a second high school indicates a town that has grown up, not the town to which they first moved.

“The last numbers I got on the population of Fallbrook is around 37,000, which definitely does not make us a little town,” Johnson said.

The district forecasts that even if no more children move into the Fallbrook attendance area, there will be 4,000 high school students by the year 1999.

The Fallbrook Union High School has outgrown its current site, school officials said. Originally designed for 1,200 students and refurbished to house 1,800, the school now serves more than 2,300 students, officials said.

Twice before, the district tried to pass similar bonds: once in June, 1990, when the district fell less than 100 votes short of the necessary two-thirds approval, and again five months later in November.

The opposition has stumped school officials in a town that has traditionally given its time and money generously to the school.

“There is no question that when they are convinced that they want to have something done, that they will do it. We have always gotten great community support,” Supt. Robert Thomas said.

Even after two campaigns and a heated debate over a controversial tax-raising proposal last summer, Thomas still isn’t sure that people accept the message that their high school needs help.

“The recognition isn’t there yet,” he said. “They drive by it, and it appears to be business as usual, and there is still some disbelief that there is no way that we are going to pick up a couple of thousands of students.”

Of course, there are the usual concerns over raising taxes and finding the appropriate site for the school.

Those who live near the proposed site on Gird Road say the district has not looked hard enough for a site closer to the heart of town and that the only access to the school would be a two-lane dirt road.

Even though board members agreed that a bond issue needs to be passed, board member Tal Cowen voted against the proposal, saying the issue is too complicated to pass.

“The important thing here is to walk away in June and have a bond passed,” he said, “and I’m not certain that that is going to happen unless we have a bond issue that is as uncomplicated and upfront as possible.”

Usually, a successful campaign takes as much as a year of planning and runs into snags even under the command of the best managers. But school board members have confidence that, in a town such as Fallbrook, where coffee shop patrons still toss around the local political issues over a meal, a quickie campaign will do the trick.

“We’ve done it so often over the last two years that people do know that there is a need and that this is a real issue. It’s just a matter of getting them out to vote,” said board president Phyllis Martin.

The deadline to file a general obligation bond issue for the June 2 ballot is Friday.