CAMARILLO : District to Get Loan to Build New School

In an effort to ease school crowding, the board of the Pleasant Valley Elementary School District has decided to take out a long-term loan to finance construction of a school in eastern Camarillo.

The board voted unanimously Thursday to borrow money for the school and to stretch the payments out 25 years, but they will wait until they receive construction bids to set the loan amount.

School officials have recommended that the district borrow $4 million for construction of the school in the Woodcreek Road area, with the goal of completing it by the fall of 1994.

At the same meeting, the board decided to raise developer fees to the new state maximum, with the intention of using the funds to pay interest on the Woodcreek construction loan.

The new state law allows school districts to charge developers up to $2.65 per square foot of new residential construction, $1 higher than previously.

Since Pleasant Valley shares its developer fees with the Oxnard Union High School District, it will receive only $1.4575 for each new square foot of construction.

But district staff members estimate that the increase will still give them an additional $396,000 per year in developer fees, close to the projected annual interest payments on a $4-million loan.

Board members said the loan is necessary because Camarillo voters rejected two school construction bond issues in 1991. But they warned that they will still propose another school construction bond issue to Camarillo voters within several years.