Countywide : Area Schools in Line for New Bond Funds

Oxnard Union High School District will be among the first school systems to benefit from the passage of a statewide $1.9-billion bond measure to provide money for public school construction and renovation, officials said Thursday.

And Moorpark school officials also hope to collect $1 million from money generated by Proposition 53, which was approved with 53% of the vote in Tuesday’s election.

Passage of the bond measure assures that Oxnard Union High School District will receive more than $20 million in state funding for construction of a new Oxnard High School, said Bob Brown, business manager for the district.

“We’re really pleased,” he said. “We’re among the highest priorities in the state for funding.”

District officials have been considering the relocation of Oxnard High School for two years, since state officials declared its present site unsafe because of its proximity to Oxnard Airport. The school, at 5th and Hobson Way, is about 1,800 feet from the airport runway.

Brown said an alternative site for the school has already been found and that negotiations are under way for its purchase. The site is near the intersection of Patterson and Gonzales roads.

Brown said the district has already received and spent about $1 million on architectural plans for the new school, which must now be approved by the state. Proposition 152 dollars could also pay for a new state-of-the-art science wing at Chaparral Middle School in Moorpark, officials said.

“We’re hoping to receive about a $1 million,” said Tom Baldwin, president of the Moorpark Unified School District Board of Education.

But Moorpark Unified Supt. Tom Duffy said getting the money for the project will not be easy for the district, which has received $50 million in state funding since 1986. He said new state funding guidelines give higher priority to year-round schools and schools that provide matching funds.

Chaparral Middle School does not meet either of the new guidelines. But Duffy said exact details of how the bond money will be distributed are still being worked out and that the district could still receive some funding.

Brown said because the Oxnard Union High School District overlaps with the Oxnard Elementary School District, which has year-round schools, it will retain its high priority status with the state.