Survey Shows School Bond Support Lags : Oxnard: District phone poll of 380 homeowners reveals many are not willing to pay higher taxes to finance a new campus to ease crowding.

Although overcrowding in high schools concerns Oxnard, Camarillo and Port Hueneme residents, many are not willing to pay higher taxes to alleviate the problem, according to a recent survey.

Only 57% of 380 homeowners telephoned by the Oxnard Union High School District said they would vote in November for a measure allowing the district to borrow $45 million for a new school.

According to Supt. Bill Studt, such a measure would require approval from two-thirds of the voters. Wednesday night, Studt recommended to the district board that it hold off on any effort to put the bond measure before the voters.

“I think we need to get a real campaign out there as far as letting people know how overcrowded the campuses are going to be,” Studt said. “Once they understand the issue, we believe we might be able to move forward with [the bond plan].”

The survey showed that many voters understand the issue; 77% of those polled said they believe overcrowding in local schools is a very serious or somewhat serious problem. What seems to concern voters is the prospect of raising taxes. A $45-million bond package would cost homeowners about $7 per $100,000 of assessed value, Studt said. The debt would be cleared in 20 to 30 years. The district recently completed a new Oxnard High School, but Studt said the new campus is a replacement facility and does not mitigate the effects of a burgeoning student enrollment.

When Studt joined the district in 1986, enrollment at five high schools was 10,423. Although the district is still tabulating figures, 1995 enrollment is expected to top 12,800.

Looming in the minds of district officials are the swelling ranks of students in grammar and middle schools who will eventually be packing off for Oxnard’s high schools. By 2000, officials plan on 15,000 students filling district classrooms--or 3,000 per current high school.

“These are kids already in the pipeline,” Studt said.

The district’s high schools--Camarillo, Rio Mesa, Oxnard, Channel Island and Hueneme--are designed to accommodate 10,500 students, Studt said. He said he would be happy if they could serve 2,250 students per campus.

“If we were able to build that [extra] campus, we could equalize the students into six campuses,” Studt said. “That brings it down to 2,500, which is high, but acceptable.”

The question put to homeowners read: “Some people have proposed a $45-million dollar bond measure for the Oxnard Union High School District to finance the construction of a new high school to ease overcrowding. If there was an election in which you were asked to vote on this bond measure, does it sound like something you would favor or oppose?”

Ten percent of the respondents somewhat opposed the idea, and 21% strongly opposed it. Another 12% did not give an opinion.

Such measures do not have a history of success. A $45-million bond measure the district put on the ballot in 1991 failed, receiving 57% of the vote, Studt said.

Administrators have adapted as best they can to overcrowding by using portable classrooms and booting teachers out of open classrooms during their preparatory periods so an instructor can come in and teach. According to Studt, one temporary solution to overcrowding would involve installing 94 portables across the five campuses at a cost of about $5 million.

“The problem is, we don’t know where we would put all those portables,” Studt said. He said the district plans to mount an expansive education effort on overcrowding using the PTA, newsletter, flyers, campus meetings, back-to-school night and media.

“The community in general has to have a better understanding,” Studt said.

The district plans to follow up those outreach efforts with a second telephone survey in January.

The biggest hurdle, Studt says, is the tax hike.

“It’s no time to be asking for money with taxes the way they are and the economy the way it is,” 73-year-old Oxnard resident Dan Tullio said. Overcrowding “is just something that has to be dealt with.”

The district stretches from the Santa Clara River on the northwest to the Moorpark city limits on the east, south to the Pacific Ocean and west to the outskirts of Oxnard.

On June 6, many of the same voters who would have decided the bond’s fate rejected the Pleasant Valley School District’s bid to pass a $55-million bond to build new elementary schools in the Camarillo area.

Lynn Johnson, a 37-year-old Oxnard resident with two children in elementary school, is one of those willing to take a tax hit if it would help ease overcrowding.

“I think education is really important and I don’t think we spend nearly enough money on our children,” Johnson said. “Even one more school would have to help the overcrowding.”