ELECTIONS / BEVERLY HILLS SCHOOL BONDS : Tax Hike Sought to Repair, Upgrade Facilities

The legendary schools of Beverly Hills are falling apart.

Oh, the education and test scores are still high. Families are still scheming how to get around the residency requirements to send their children there. And the vintage architecture of its five schools still delights the eye.

But behind those doors, plaster is crumbling, ceiling tiles are falling, chunks of stairs are missing, electricity is out in some spots, the ancient boilers malfunction, and what few fire sprinklers exist are not connected to alarms. Asbestos still has not been removed and seismic improvements haven’t been made in decades.

Some teachers have repapered their waterlogged classroom walls with sheets of colored construction paper; this month’s first rain of the season left 15 classrooms at Beverly Hills High wet.

So, after three failed attempts to pass a tax to increase school revenues, the Beverly Hills Unified School District is asking voters to approve a $77-million bond issue--Proposition S--next month to update the deteriorating buildings. The measure needs a two-thirds “yes” vote to pass.

The funds would be earmarked for “rehabilitating, improving and upgrading classroom and other facilities owned by the district,” not for building any new schools. Proponents cite concerns over student health and safety, the need for alterations to accommodate new technologies and provide access for the handicapped, and the relationship of schools to property values as some of the reasons for voting yes.

The previous proposals--most recently in 1991--would have levied a parcel tax on commercial and residential properties, which would have generated money for the district’s general fund rather than specifically for capital improvements. One attempt fell only five votes short of the two-thirds threshold.

“This time, we are asking voters to approve a tax on assessed value, not market value,” said school Supt. Sol Levine. “For the owner of a home or condo at the median assessed value for Beverly Hills properties (about $360,000), it would mean about $89 a year over the next 35 years.” (The average tax would be lower than that during the first few years, because not all the bonds are to be issued at once.)

New taxes are a tough sell anywhere. In fact, voters statewide have turned down 42 of 74 proposed school bond measures in the past two years. And several factors in Beverly Hills make a two-thirds majority for a school tax measure all the more difficult to attain. The segments of the electorate most likely to support such a measure--parents and teachers--are unusually small in the city. Only 20% of the voters have school-aged children, and few teachers can afford to live in the city.

Nonetheless, the bond issue has attracted widespread support. And even though the tax burden would fall heaviest (40%) on local businesses, it has been endorsed by the Chamber of Commerce.

It also is supported by the City Council, the Parent-Teacher Assns., the League of Women Voters, the Beverly Hills Education Assn., a renters group called Concern for Tenants’ Rights, three homeowners’ associations, all candidates for the Board of Education and a gamut of residents ranging from actor Jack Lemmon to real estate executives Jon Douglas and Fred Sands.

There is no organized opposition, and no one seems to disagree with the premise that the schools are in disrepair. Some residents, however, have voiced concern that the measure is both inflated and vague.

“It gives the school board a blank check and allows it to go on a spending spree,” said attorney Jack Cohen. “They want us to pay first and then they’ll figure out how to spend the money after the election.”

He said the lack of specificity would allow the board to approve controversial measures later on, and he criticized Proposition S for its lack of mandated cost controls and accountability, a lack of adequate planning and preparation, excessive expense and inherent unfairness because it is based on already inequitable property assessments created by Proposition 13.

Cohen and another critic, retired contractor Kurt Haber, note that the voter pamphlet carries a disclaimer telling voters that “the foregoing information (about Proposition S) is based upon projections and estimates only which are not binding upon the district,” meaning that individual taxes could vary greatly.

Likewise, public works commissioner and community activist Betty Harris said she supports the idea of a bond issue, “but I think we can do better than this. The school board has said, ‘Trust me, and we’ll do it right.’ ”

Harris pointed out that the city government already allots $5.5 million annually to its public schools, and that a portion of property taxes also goes to education.

That kind of sentiment elicits only sighs from Proposition S’s supporters. “Some people,” Supt. Levine said, “are opposed to anything that deals with taxes.”

Ken Goldman, chairman of the Yes on S Committee, said opponents of the measure do not understand how construction works, that the 203-page assessment prepared by an architecture and engineering team is intended as a planning road map, and that an oversight committee that includes experienced local developers would monitor the plans, costs, bidding and construction from beginning to end.

“The tax, pegged to assessed value, is as fair as you can get,” said school board President Richard A. Stone, “and the report is as precise as we could get without spending millions of dollars. We have a blank check every year for some $30 million in our budget and we spend it wisely. Why would we suddenly become a bunch of ninnies?”

Proponents say the physical plants have been neglected for years so that instructional quality in the 5,000-student district could be maintained. So far, that policy has paid off--96% of Beverly Hills High graduates go on to college--and the schools are considered competitive with many private institutions.

Levine says the district is coping as best it can with a shrinking budget; a total of $7 million has been cut since 1987 and the district will have to cut programs should the bond measure fail, he said.

But the consensus on the street is that this time, just maybe, it will pass, despite the state of the economy.

“The importance of Prop. S is obvious,” Stone said. “There has been no serious work done for the past 20 years, and old buildings deteriorate even faster when you neglect them. We have to do something, and my feeling is that we should think ahead, not just patch a roof or fix a wall.”