BURBANK : Schools’ Renovation Will Require Millions

A plan proposed by the Burbank Board of Education to fund the rebuilding of district high schools and the renovation of other facilities anticipates the district will need either $30 million or $50 million in city help--depending on whether Proposition 170 passes, a board member said this week.

The school board will ask the Burbank City Council for the funds Thursday, officials said. The district will need $50 million if Proposition 170 fails Nov. 2, but only $30 million if it succeeds, Trustee Denise Lioy Wilcox said.

Proposition 170 is a ballot initiative that would allow a simple majority of voters to approve school construction bond issues, instead of the two-thirds now required.

The Burbank school board plans to ask voters to approve a $70-million bond measure to be used toward its proposed $130-million plan if the proposition succeeds. If it fails, Wilcox said the board will seek the approval of a $40-million bond measure.

The funding plan was drawn up two months ahead of schedule by Wilcox, who took a leave of absence from her job at the Los Angeles Unified School District to coordinate the plan.

“I think we were able to do it because we made it our No. 1 priority,” Wilcox said. Because the plan is ahead of schedule, officials said the school board can hire architects and financial consultants for the reconstruction as early as next week instead of at year’s end.

The request from the school board will also have to be balanced with the city’s other lists of capital improvement projects, also to be reviewed by the City Council next week, Mayor George Battey Jr. said.

At Tuesday night’s meeting, the City Council voted 4 to 0, with Councilman Bob Bowne absent, to back Proposition 170 to show support for the school district.

Homeowner Ted McConkey opposed Proposition 170, calling it “an institutionalization of gross incompetence.”

“The school board has shown no capacity to manage the funds we have given them,” McConkey said.