Oxnard District Leaders Make Plans for $57-Million Windfall

Administrators and school board members spent Wednesday relishing a rare victory and plotting how to spend $57 million provided by voters in the Oxnard Union High School District.

Calls went out almost immediately to the planners in charge of designing a new high school in central Oxnard. Officials put the project on hold five years ago, when a previous bond measure failed.

“We’re just thrilled,” said Richard Canady, the assistant superintendent for business. “We’re going to get started immediately. We’ll contact the architect right away, probably today.”

The bond measure came very close to defeat Tuesday, winning approval by barely 1.5%.

More than 68% of district voters approved Measure Y, the $57-million school bond initiative that will pay for the new campus and renovations at six existing campuses, which serve more than 13,000 students. It required 66.6% approval to pass.

Officials credited their success to a bank of volunteers who worked feverishly over the past month to persuade property owners to dig deep for local schools.

“We worked as hard as we possibly could,” trustee Nancy Koch said. “It was always a question about getting more than two-thirds support. We had parents, principals and tons of volunteers.

“We had two phone banks making calls Mondays through Thursdays for the past month. If people needed information, we mailed it to them.”

Officials at the California School Boards Assn. in West Sacramento said the passage of Measure Y shows what an intense lobbying campaign the district must have conducted.

“There’s more and more pressure for school boards to put bonds on the ballot,” said Marci Fong, an association spokeswoman. “And it takes a large community relations effort to get one passed.”

Officials from other school districts cheered the success of Measure Y, with administrators across Ventura County hoping to achieve the same success in future elections.

“I’m very happy for them,” said Howard Hamilton, the assistant superintendent at nearby Pleasant Valley School District in Camarillo, where four bond measures have failed in the past five years.

“I voted for it,” he said. “It’s what’s best for the kids. They have some real concerns there and things are very tight.”

Hamilton said Pleasant Valley officials have not decided whether to pursue a fifth school bond measure. “It’s something to take a look at over time,” he said. “But it’s just too soon to tell.”

In Fillmore, school district administrators said they hope the passage of Measure Y bodes well for their school bond, which will confront Fillmore-area voters on a special ballot in March.

That $12-million initiative would allow officials to finish building the Fillmore Middle School campus, which now shares a cafeteria, library and other facilities with a nearby high school.

Fillmore voters passed a similar bond in the mid-1980s, but the school district ran out of money before the new campus could be fully constructed, said Barbara Spieler, the district’s business manager.

Five years ago, however, voters refused a second measure that would have allowed the construction to continue. This time, they hope for a reversal.

“It’s very imperative,” Spieler said. “The district is growing, and we need the space.

“Down the pipeline, if we cannot manage to get the middle school built, we’ll be looking at double sessions or multitrack year-round [school],” Spieler said. “Nobody likes to do that.”

Oxnard School District officials, who run the elementary and middle schools in Oxnard, also will pursue a bond measure in March, asking voters to approve $57 million in bonds for renovation projects at their campuses.

“It really boils down to need,” said Sandra Herrera, assistant superintendent for business. “I’m thrilled for them. Their need is as great as ours.”

Herrera hopes the electorate will recognize that elementary schools need extra help too. “The public looks around and is very informed,” she said. “They understand the needs.”

But not all school administrators see the voter approval of Measure Y as the portent of things to come.

Conejo Valley Unified School District officials, for example, said a bond measure is not likely to be approved in their anti-tax community despite the dire need for more classrooms.

A $77-per-year parcel tax was shot down by three-quarters of Conejo Valley voters in 1984, trustee Dolores Didio said.

“Maybe Oxnard doesn’t have as many people who are adamantly opposed to any kind of tax as we do,” she said.

Times correspondent Kate Folmar contributed to this story.