ELECTIONS / BOND MEASURE : Camarillo School Officials to Try Vote Again in June

Camarillo school board members said Friday they hope the third time will be the charm when they place a $55-million bond measure on the June 6 ballot.

School trustees voted unanimously late Thursday to move ahead with the measure, even though the city’s voters have defeated two previous bond measure attempts.

“We will talk to as many residents as we can, knocking on doors and holding information sessions, to let them know how much this money is needed,” said Dolores (Val) Rains, president of the Pleasant Valley school district board. “We will win this election vote-by-vote.”

Educators said they believe a new optimism on the county’s economy, coupled with the recent news that neither of Ventura County’s two military bases are on the Pentagon’s recommended closure list, indicates that the time is ripe to win voters’ favor.

But even with a recovering economy, the district has a tough job ahead, some school leaders concede. Bond measures require approval by two-thirds of voters--always difficult to achieve--and pockets of opposition to any new taxes persist in Camarillo.

School officials will have to persuade undecided voters that money is needed to build three elementary schools and to repair aging campuses, Associate Supt. Howard Hamilton said. Permits to build about 1,800 residences in fast-growing eastern Camarillo already have been approved, Hamilton said.

That equates to about 900 new students who will have no place to go because of crowding at existing schools, he said.

To solve the problem, school officials want to build an elementary school east of Camarillo High School, a second campus in the Santa Rosa Valley and a third elementary campus in an undeveloped area southeast of the Ventura Freeway, Hamilton said.

The money also would be used to refurbish 19 schools, eight of which are at least 30 years old, he said. Heating, plumbing and electrical work needs to be done at the aging buildings, as well as providing them with a coat of fresh paint, Hamilton said.

“We have some schools where the electricity keeps going out because of computer overload,” he said. “We need to overhaul our wiring so we can take students onto the information superhighway.”

If approved, homeowners in the district would be charged about $2 per $100,000 of assessed property value each month. For instance, the owner of a home assessed at $200,000 would pay about $48 a year over 25 years to help retire the district’s debt.

The school district tried to get a $75-million bond passed by voters in June, 1991, but it failed with 59.9% of the district’s voters giving approval. Five months later, 64.4% of the voters said yes to a $55-million bond measure.

In both cases, the measures failed because they did not get the requisite two-thirds majority required by law. Board members had until today to decide whether to place a third bond proposal on the June ballot, Rains said.

It is a good time to try again because Ventura County’s economy is finally showing signs of growth after a long downward spiral, Rains said. The 7.9% unemployment rate for 1994 was the lowest in three years, officials said.

And news earlier this week that the military bases at Point Mugu and Port Hueneme are not on a national list of recommended closures probably will have a favorable economic effect in Camarillo, where hundreds of civilian and military families live, Rains said.

Board members, school officials, parents and other supporters of the measure will fan out over the city the next three months to ask residents for support, she said. She is optimistic the community will respond in the district’s favor.

“We want the community to recognize that this is not a wish list, it’s a need,” she said.