LOS ALAMITOS : School Trustees OK Bond Offering

School district trustees this week unanimously approved a $1.5-million bond sale to help finance the renovation of science classrooms at Los Alamitos High School.

It will be the third bond offering under Measure K, which voters approved in 1990 to raise $13 million to pay for major repairs of the Los Alamitos School District’s aging schools.

The first issue in 1990 raised $9 million, the second last year raised $1.7 million, and the remaining $800,000 could be sold in about eight years, according to Ronald Murrey, the school district’s business manager.

Murrey said that money raised from the bond offerings were used to repair electrical systems and install new roofs, heating and air-conditioning systems at Hopkinson, McGaugh and Rossmoor elementary schools, McAuliffe Middle School and Laurel High School.

The average age of the schools is 29 years, he said.

With the new bond sale, “all our projects would have been completed, and all the schools would have been renovated,” Murrey said.

School district officials said that new science classrooms are needed at Los Alamitos High because of increasing enrollment and to meet the new state curriculum requirements that emphasize science.

About 180 new students are expected at the high school next year. It has 2,500 students.

In addition to the science classrooms, 10 portable classrooms are also needed at the school, Murrey said. The project would cost $2.2 million. The school district has money set aside for the project in addition to the $1.2 million expected from the bond sale, he said.

Measure K raised property taxes within the Los Alamitos Unified School District area by an average of $4.50 a month for the next 25 years.