GLENDALE : Schools Weighing an Election on Bonds

To help bring aging classroom buildings up to structural standards, the Glendale Unified School District may ask the voters to approve a bond issue of up to $100 million.

Virtually every one of the district’s 30 schools is in need of repair, officials say. Outdated plumbing, heating, lighting and electrical systems are common, as is the lack of wiring for computer and audio-visual systems,

“We have a lot of work to do,” said Stephen Hodgson, assistant superintendent of business services. “We’re not in danger, but if we want to move ahead instructionally I think there is a recognition that there needs to be some investment.”

Teachers, principals, administrators, business people and others in the Schools Modernization Task Force have been studying the district’s options for financing the improvements, estimated at more than $60 million.

A general-obligation bond would require a two-thirds approval of the voters and would be repaid by property tax assessments. The task force also looked at other options, but concluded that a bond issue would be “the most efficient revenue source with the least impact on individual property owners,” said Jo Anne Koch, a Hoover High School teacher.

“It’s hard to know if this would pass in our depressed economy, but it’s possible,” Koch said.

According to the task force’s estimates, a homeowner whose property is assessed at $300,000 would pay an average $88 a year toward the school improvements over a 25-year bond period, Koch said.

But before the school board is asked to make a decision on whether to put a bond issue before the voters, the district will survey voters in the spring as to whether they support refurbishing the schools, and if so, how they would prefer to pay for it, Hodgson said.

The district also plans to hire architectural consultants this year to conduct an inventory and priority list of the upgrades needed at each school. A bond issue could be placed on the ballot for approval in early 1996, district officials said.

But Hodgson stressed that all discussions on the issue are preliminary and public hearings will be held before any financing plan is pursued.