Camarillo Bond Seen as Way to Fix Decaying Campuses : Finances: A $55-million issue on June 6 ballot could also build three new elementary schools for up to 900 new students.

Termites, left to themselves, etch out gaping, inch-wide cracks in door frames at Camarillo Heights School. The wood-eating pests openly compete with ants, spiders and other insects for supremacy over the aging elementary campus.

Nearby, 40-year-old brass bathroom fixtures--whose parts are no longer manufactured--are damp and corroded. Ceiling tiles, stained with concentric brown circles from years of unrepaired roof leaks, mark nearly every classroom and office.

“Every time it rains I wonder if we’re going to have a roof cave in on us,” said Camarillo Heights Principal Barbara Wagner during a recent tour of the 1950s-era school. “We are at a stage where the condition of our physical plant has started to impact our ability to deliver lessons effectively.”

Such are the conditions that Pleasant Valley School District leaders hope will persuade Camarillo-area voters to approve a $55-million bond issue in an election June 6.

Similar bond issues failed by narrow margins in June and November of 1991. But voters should say yes to the bonds this time, district officials say, given the improved economy and the fact that neither of the county’s two Navy bases was included on a recent federal base closure list.

But Michael L. Saliba, executive director of the Ventura County Taxpayers Assn., a government watchdog group, says the June election may be ill-timed.

“You have to remember that while some indicators of the economy are improved, property values are still down, and they’re not showing signs of turning around yet,” said Saliba, who added that the group’s board of directors has not yet taken a formal position on the bond election.

“I think Pleasant Valley may still have a tough time proving its case,” he said. “Things are still very tight for most people.”

Some residents, however, believe the district will prevail.

Rube Davis, a 13-year resident of Camarillo’s Leisure Village, said he believes the city--especially its elderly population--will support the bonds.

“We may have to push it a little, but I think that most of the village will support this,” said Davis, 88. “You have to remember that while we may not have school-age children anymore, we certainly have a lot of school-age grandchildren, and their education is very important to us.”

With the money, the district could repair its aging campuses--most of which are at least 30 years old. It could also build three new elementary schools to accommodate as many as 900 new students expected to enroll in the district when more than 1,800 new houses are built on the city’s east side. The costs of the elementary schools alone have been estimated at $25 million.

If the issue is approved, district homeowners would be charged about $2 per $100,000 of assessed property value each month. That means that the owner of a home assessed at $200,000 would pay about $48 a year over 25 years to retire the debt.

“I think one of the problems is that people drive by, maybe see a fresh coat of paint on a school and think everything is fine,” said Howard Hamilton, the district’s associate superintendent. “But one only has to walk through any of our schools to see what bad shape they’re really in.”

And most of the district’s anticipated developers’ fees--payments by builders that are mandated by law--already have been spent in the form of security for a loan that funded construction of the $4.5-million Tierra Linda School.

Even with the new school, which opened in September, the district’s troubles did not go away. In fact, Tierra Linda was filled to capacity from the first day it opened for kindergarten through third-grade pupils.

“We knew that’s what was going to happen, but it was an amazing thing to see anyway,” Hamilton said. “I hope that it’s something not lost on the voters.”

To be sure, schools across the district are not only filled to capacity but are also having to jury-rig campuses to continue to meet the demands of educating children.

At Valle Lindo elementary school in west-central Camarillo, what was once a spacious library has been cut in half to provide extra classroom space. Teachers preparation areas are being used for special education purposes, relegating the teachers to spaces that used to be closets.

Student computer labs--filled with early Apple computers--are so cramped that only half a class can fit at a time. Temporary portable trailers--introduced with the promise that replacement structures were only a year or two away--have grown so old that they are now considered another part of the permanent campus.

Elsewhere, tennis balls have been cut open to fit over the ends of chair legs and thus provide students and teachers relief from the harsh sounds of the metal chairs scraping across linoleum tiles so old they no longer shine when waxed.

Students at most of the district’s campuses have no choice but to eat their lunches in the open--exposed to the heat of summer and the cold of winter. Carpeting for classrooms and covered lunch areas have remained a dream--officials say they have no money for such things.

Some of the district’s older schools are not connected to city sewer systems and their septic tanks often back up, while the electrical wiring in others is so old that teachers have to schedule the use of a computer lab so as to not overload other areas of the school.

And because of the district’s age, officials are contending with the ongoing removal of dangerous, cancer-causing asbestos at 11 of the 14 campuses.

So far, officials in the 6,900-student district have decided against bringing in professional consultants to run their campaign, but they said they will aggressively seek to show the 32,000 registered voters in the district just how badly they need the funding.

“I fear that people may start to think that we are always crying poor,” said school board President Dolores (Val) Rains. “I don’t want to come off like motherhood and apple pie here, but the education of our children has got to be a priority.”

Rains and board colleague Jan McDonald both agreed that getting the message out about the district’s needs must be done on a grass-roots level.

“I think it would be a mistake to try and run some sort of slick campaign,” McDonald said. “I’m hoping the two previous attempts have laid the groundwork for our success this time. It’s not uncommon to fail the first few times when you have to get two-thirds” of the vote.

In an attempt to create a sense of “ownership” among neighborhood voters, the campaign will lay out each school’s needs and show how the bond money would help in paying for renovations, McDonald said.

“Maybe we will have to take voters by the hand this time and show them,” she said. “If that’s what it will take to convince them to support the bond, then I will lead the tours myself.”

District officials believe that voter indifference or apathy may be their biggest foe in achieving the necessary two-thirds affirmative vote. As in the two previous bond elections, which failed despite racking up 59.9% and 64.3% approval margins, district officials do not expect any organized opposition.

Bill Torrence, president of the Ventura County League of Homeowners and a Camarillo Springs resident, said he and members of his association will do their best to make sure the issue passes.

“Our schools are very important to us. Yes, it is another cost that we will have to afford, but we believe that it is worth it,” Torrence said. “We feel that if you don’t support education, you are threatening the very future of our country.”