Oxnard, Fillmore Pin Hopes for Schools on Voters

Desperate to create more classroom space for a growing enrollment and smaller classes, school districts are placing their hopes on the ballot.

Districts in Oxnard and Fillmore agreed this week to ask voters in March for money needed to build new schools and repair old facilities.

On Tuesday’s ballot, Oxnard and Camarillo residents are deciding whether to approve a $57-million bond measure to build a seventh high school and do upgrades in the Oxnard Union High School District.

The Oxnard School District, which covers elementary and middle schools, decided Wednesday to place its own $57-million bond measure on the March election ballot. The Fillmore Unified District also announced this week its plan to seek voters’ approval for $12 million in bonds to complete its middle school and finance needed upgrades.

“I think it’s a good investment,” Oxnard School District trustee James Suter said of the $57-million bond. “The kids are our future and we’ve got to do something [to create] space for them.”

Since Gov. Pete Wilson announced in July state incentives for reducing class sizes to 20 students, school districts across Ventura County have scrambled to find more space. But in a district such as Oxnard that already has year-round schools and has posted a 4% increase in enrollment this year, space is difficult to find, administrators said.

Sandra Herrera, Oxnard School District’s assistant superintendent for business and fiscal services, estimates the district has already used more than 40 classrooms for class-size reduction, enough space to fill two elementary schools.

The $57-million bond measure for the elementary school district would provide money to build at least three schools, a library wing at Cesar Chavez School as well as money for upgrades and technological improvements, Herrera said. Although board members initially thought the bond measure would be about $50 million, they decided this week to add the extra $7 million to accommodate inflation.

Fillmore began building its middle school in the late 1980s but never finished putting in all the classrooms because of lack of funds, Fillmore Supt. Mario Contini said. With a $5-million bond measure approved in 1987, the district built the libraries, gyms, cafeteria and office, but had to start using loans to build four classrooms and six portables.

With the $12 million, they hope to add at least 30 classrooms to the middle school and make needed improvements around the district.

Many older students remain in classes at the elementary schools because there is not enough room at the middle school. The money for the new classrooms would also free room at the elementary school for class-size reduction, Contini said.

The bond measures would essentially ask voters for approval to borrow money for the projects and use tax dollars to pay the debt.

Although administrators are pinning their hopes on the ballot measures, voters in the past haven’t always been generous with their pocketbooks.

Camarillo’s elementary school district failed to pass a $55-million bond measure for school expansion four times in four years.

Fillmore’s $8-million measure in 1989 failed to win the two-thirds voter approval required. The Oxnard Union High School District failed to win support for $45 million in bonds for a new high school in 1992, and last year the district decided against seeking another $45 million after a survey showed it would not gain enough votes.

But school officials say the alternatives, should the bond measures be rejected, are grim.

Officials in both Oxnard districts, as well as in the Fillmore schools, have had to consider double sessions. That means one group of students would attend from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. and another from 1 to 7 p.m.

“Going to school early in the day or late in the day probably is not conducive to education,” said Richard Canady, an assistant superintendent at the Oxnard high school district. “With either double or multitrack, you’re splitting the school.”

A student who wants to take both advanced physics and band may not be able to if both are not offered in the same session, Canady said.