Ennui Thwarting Vote on $23-Million School Bond : Santa Clarita: Measure H opponents, supporters say the funding plan to improve campuses is too important to overlook.

Election? What election?

Many residents here say they have no idea, or just don’t care, that they will be asked Tuesday to modify an existing school bond so an additional $23 million can be collected for improvements at junior and senior high schools. Authorities estimate the measure, if passed, would cost a resident with a house worth $150,000 about $60 a year.

“I don’t have children, so that’s why I don’t know about it,” said Toni Franklin, 64, a retired Newhall resident.

Terry Stone, a 23-year-old discount-store worker who said he has vaguely heard about the election but is not planning to vote, agreed that the issue has not exactly been a political hot button.

“I don’t think there’s been a lot of talk about it,” he said.

Officials with the William S. Hart Union High School District predict voter turnout could be as low as 11% for the election on Measure H, which is the sole issue on the local ballot.

But supporters and opponents of the measure--who vehemently disagree on just about everything else--agree it is too important to be overlooked. Volunteers for both sides have gone door-to-door passing out thousands of flyers and talking to residents, hoping to draw attention to the issue.

Vote against the measure, proponents say, and students will be denied modern computer and science equipment, seismically safe buildings and adequate restroom facilities.

“The schools will be open, students will be learning, but they will not go into the job market with the computer skills we feel are important to today’s education,” said Daniel Hanigan, the interim superintendent of the district. “We’ll leave the 30-year-old air-conditioning units in there and repair them when we can, instead of replacing them.”

But those opposing Measure H, including a group of older and retired homeowners running a grass-roots campaign, say it amounts to an unjustified tax increase. They complain the measure is deceptive because it does not specifically state the projects the money will be spent on.

“They don’t run the district as a business,” said Jack Mehterian, 69, a retired Newhall resident. “They run it as an open-ended situation where every time they want more money they scream for it.”

Measure H would modify a bond originally approved by Hart district voters in 1974 that is in effect through the 2000-01 school year. The bond currently allows district officials to collect up to 5.25 cents for each $100 of assessed property valuation. The funds collected under this measure are to go only toward rent on buildings used by the district.

Currently, to meet those rental needs, the district collects less than one-fifth the allowed amount.

The modification to the bond, which requires a simple majority to be approved (only new bonds, under Proposition 13, require a two-thirds majority vote), would allow money to be collected for a wide variety of projects such as science labs, earthquake repairs, school security systems and “additional needed improvements,” according to the measure’s wording.

That wording worries residents such as Tom Haner, 64, who said it would allow district officials to spend money on virtually any type of project. He said spending should be limited to what the district can afford within its current budget.

“We pay enough into our school system,” he said. “They need to learn to economize.”

Hart board members said the measure’s wording specifically states new bond revenue will have to be spent on improvements, not salaries or other administrative costs.

“This is not some hidden agenda, where we’re saying, ‘Let’s fool everybody,’ ” said board member George Aliano. “In our discussions, we were adamant about it being used for those things listed, [such as] technology and earthquake repair. Not for salaries and not for improvements to working conditions.”

Hanigan said his first priorities are putting computers in classrooms, repairing earthquake damage not covered by emergency aid and installing campus security systems.

“We do not know of another way to infuse the amount of money needed for those things without local support,” he said.