School Officials Vow to Renew Bond Fight : Education: Ballot measure to ease Paramount district overcrowding fails to muster two-thirds vote for passage.

A $15-million bond issue that would have helped the Paramount Unified School District ease overcrowding was defeated Tuesday night, but supporters vowed to place another measure on the November ballot.

Proposition S garnered 59% of the vote, failing to receive the necessary two-thirds majority. School officials had sought voter approval to sell bonds to pay for construction of two new schools and renovation of other campuses.

Supporters said the loss was a bitter one. Many said the two-thirds vote required for school bond issues is almost impossible to achieve in an anti-tax climate.

“If we were building a prison or putting fish in a hatchery, we would have done it,” schools Supt. Michele Lawrence said, holding back tears. “We’re not going to let this get us. We’re not backing off.”

Added school board member Janet Miller: “This (bond measure) is what’s right for the kids. We will try again.”

The measure had generated little controversy until the final days of the campaign, when a group calling itself Property Owners & Tenants Against Excessive School Tax Increase distributed a mailer blasting the proposal.

The group, which did not list an address or phone number, contended in the mailer that the district has a $6-million reserve that can be used for school construction.

District sources said they traced the mailer to Paramount City Councilwoman Esther Caldwell. Her husband, school board member Richard B. Caldwell, was the only board member to oppose the ballot measure, saying residents should not have to pay higher taxes. Richard Caldwell also is a former Paramount schools superintendent.

Caldwell acknowledged that his wife was responsible for the mailer opposing the measure but said it played a small role in the election. “I think the measure would have been defeated in any event,” Caldwell said. “It’s the people that vote. People did not want their taxes increased.”

“You’d think an ex-superintendent would be thinking of the children,” school board member E. Betty Harkema said. “I’m really sickened and saddened by it.”

District officials said they are taking other steps to try to ease crowding. Five schools will begin year-round schedules in July, for example, and all campuses except Paramount High School eventually will switch to year-round classes, Lawrence said.

The 14,400-student district operates 13 schools in Paramount and parts of Bellflower, Lakewood, Long Beach and South Gate. Most of the elementary schools house nearly twice the number of students that they were designed to accommodate.

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ELECTION RETURNS PARAMOUNT Unified School District Proposition S Sell bonds for school construction (Requires approval by two-thirds of voters) 13 of 13 Precincts Reporting

Candidate Vote % Yes 1,725 59 No 1,201 41