School Bond Measure Backers Go Door-to-Door

Taking a lesson from their razor-thin loss in last year’s election, backers of a bond measure to repair Los Angeles schools took their campaign straight to the neighborhoods Saturday in a last-minute scramble to get out the vote for Tuesday’s balloting.

Bolstered by a flurry of television commercials, supporters of the $2.4-billion measure held rallies at four schools and called on likely backers in the San Fernando Valley and elsewhere in the city in a grass-roots approach not undertaken last November, when the measure narrowly failed to get the two-thirds majority needed for passage.

At San Fernando High School, about 50 students reported for door-knocking duty and fanned out to homes in 12 precincts. Another group of about 20 students from Grant High and Van Nuys High covered another dozen precincts, said organizer Jeff Klein of Angelenos for Better Classrooms, which provided lunch and soft drinks for the volunteers.

In upscale Hancock Park, about 100 parents, teachers and students gathered in front of John Burroughs Middle School before trooping into the surrounding community armed with lists of likely supporters and leaflets extolling Proposition BB.

“Our success hinges on a strong voter turnout,” said campaign spokesman Erik Nasarenko. “Last time, we ran the campaign centrally from a high-rise. This time we’re in the field, phone banking and doing the precinct walking.”

The reception seemed friendly among the stately homes around the Burroughs school, where parent leader Cindi du Bois went door-to-door with a gaggle of youthful campaigners on bicycles and on foot. In the first two blocks, seven voters promised support to the youngsters; one said he’d vote no.

The aging, brick Burroughs school, known locally simply as “JB,” would receive $2.5 million from the bond to fix a leaky roof, improve air conditioning and restore the auditorium, the school’s principal said.

“We do everything we can to keep it clean and safe. But it’s eroding. It’s old,” Principal Earl Barner said after the brief rally at the school.

The measure, which lost last time by a single percentage point, has support from the city’s political establishment, with endorsements from both mayoral candidates--incumbent Richard Riordan, a Republican, and challenger Tom Hayden, a Democratic state senator--plus 13 members of the City Council. In an effort to woo conservatives, campaign mailers have highlighted Riordan’s support and a promise to place a member of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn. on the committee that would oversee spending.

Backers have also unleashed a $134,000 blitz in 11th-hour television advertising, abandoning the failed campaign’s strategy of relying on radio commercials.

Nasarenko said the measure is expected to rise or fall depending on voter turnout. A recent Times Poll found it would probably fall short of the needed two-thirds majority in a low-turnout election. Turnout tends to dip in off-year elections such as this one, and measure supporters worry that voters will shy away because polling shows lopsided races for mayor and city attorney.

Opposition to the school bond bloomed late in the campaign. Some members of a group favoring removal of San Fernando Valley schools from the Los Angeles Unified School District said the measure might hinder their efforts because it would deplete the property tax base for future bonds for the new Valley districts.

Opponents of the bond measure, led by Assemblyman Tom McClintock (R-Northridge), also said there are enough public funds to fix ailing schools already.

However, the students who walked precincts in the Valley said they were well received.

“It was well-known to a lot of people, and they agree with it,” said San Fernando junior Tony Nguyen. “I think it’s going to go through this time.”

Reana Ramirez, a 16-year-old junior at San Fernando High who, with three classmates, knocked on about 40 doors near the school, said they did encounter some skeptics.

“Some said the Board of Education had enough money, but they didn’t use it wisely,” said Amelia Quezada, a 17-year-old San Fernando senior.

But at the Burroughs school rally, bond supporters said the need for repair money is dire. Assembly Majority Leader Antonio Villaraigosa (D-Los Angeles), a former teachers union organizer, said schools deserve the same consideration as jails, such as the county’s newly opened Twin Towers, when it comes to construction projects.

“If our schools were prisons, they’d be state-of-the-art,” Villaraigosa told the crowd. “We don’t have a school that we can compare to Twin Towers.”