San Diego County Elections : City Schools Measure, Prop. O, Leading : Education: Measure would authorize $215 million to renovate San Diego schools.

Proposition O, which promises $215 million to renovate San Diego city schools, was leading after a tight battle Tuesday night as polls drew remarkably few voters.

If the measure doesn’t win voters’ approval, school officials vowed to bring it to the polls once again in the fall.

“I expected it would be extremely close,” said schools Supt. Tom Payzant. “If it’s not successful, it will be my recommendation that we go back to the voters in November and request approval again.”

The close race was expected Tuesday evening as officials learned of the low voter turnout--a fact that school officials believed may have hurt Proposition O.

“Our polling data indicates that people most likely to vote are older homeowners, with no children in school,” said Jeanne Jehl, district coordinator for Proposition O. “So, when you get a low-turnout election, you’re not likely to attract people who might be more inclined to vote for something like this.”

The registrar of voters said Tuesday that voter turnout was a mere 35%.

Proposition O, proponents said, would ease crowded schools by raising $215 million for the financially strapped San Diego Unified District to renovate dilapidated facilities and construct new ones.

The measure could eventually mean a tax increase of as much as $87 a year for every $100,000 assessed valuation. Initially, however, it would mean property taxes would be increased $38 per year for every $100,000 assessed valuation.

But the measure also would provide as many as 4,500 new construction jobs over a decade to a community hit hard by the recession.

Approval by voters would authorize construction bonds for projects that include four new schools and major renovation of six others in Mid-City, Golden Hill and Barrio Logan, totaling more than $100 million.

Every middle and junior high school citywide would be renovated so that classrooms could use cutting-edge equipment. The renovations and construction would occur over a 10-year period through 2003. School officials, who touted this measure as boosting the depressed building trades industry, said they hoped to begin the most expensive projects immediately after the elections if the measure passes.

Faced with crowding, schools have been forced to juggle students and devise creative schedules. At Sherman Elementary in Golden Hill, for instance, 1,310 students attend year-round sessions despite a capacity of almost one-third less. These schools would see immediate relief should Proposition O pass, proponents said.

“There are very overcrowded schools or older schools that are being used year-round, some with between 300 and 500 more than capacity, and they are wearing out,” said Kay Davis, co-chair of the San Diego Citizens for City Schools. “It’s an immediate emergency.”

The measure would “only meet a fraction” of the district’s estimated $690 million in construction and renovation needs, Davis said, but it would provide a crucial start.

“This will assist with $215 million of those needs, so it’s taking care of one-third. So there is still a long list of schools that need additions and care,” Davis said. “We just haven’t been able to do that with the current budget situation.”

But, clearly, Proposition O faced numerous hurdles as voters hit the polls Tuesday. Although Davis and others said the recession has made the measure more important than ever, critics said the tight financial times meant voters would oppose any tax increases, no matter how honorable the cause.

For voters, the issues surrounding Proposition O became muddied as residents also considered the prospect of educational choice in California: the idea of using public funds to send children to schools of their choice, even private schools.

Choice supporters said that, if a statewide ballot initiative qualified for the November ballot, it could undermine the need for Proposition O. Rather than fix up rundown public schools, they said, students would be spread around to public and private facilities if that initiative won.

“If you believe that, I’ve got a bridge to sell you,” said Terry Churchill, co-chair of San Diego Citizens for City Schools, which dispatched 100,000 mailers in support of Proposition O before the election.

Churchill and others said the need for Proposition O was so great that, even if it was defeated in Tuesday’s election, it would once again face the voters.

“At stake here is a way to meet the long-term needs of the district,” said Jehl “We are growing, and we see no way that the growth is going to stop. If Proposition O is not successful this week, it will come back in November. It’s that critical.”