Volunteers Wage Final Push for Funds

At a recent appearance before the local Democratic Club, Ventura schools Supt. Joseph Spirito spoke about the needs of his district’s 27 campuses and the importance of an $81-million school bond measure that will appear on the June 3 special election ballot.

“Do we want to provide a quality of life for our children in California and Ventura?” asked Spirito, who showed his support for the bond initiative by wearing a multicolored tie depicting a school bus loaded with students. “Are we going to give them a fair shake? We’re the ones pulling the strings.”

Trying to muster support for next week’s school bond elections, volunteers from Ventura Unified and Oxnard and Ocean View elementary school districts are waging one last big push to get out the vote--knocking on doors, rounding up endorsements from local politicians and mailing out batches of campaign brochures.

Voters will determine whether students will receive everything from new computers to new schools. Each of the three school bond measures requires a two-thirds majority or 66.6% of the votes for passage.

* At $81 million, Ventura Unified School District’s Measure M will be the largest school bond to be placed on the ballot in county history. School officials plan to use the bond money to help build two elementary schools, a middle school and a magnet school as well as reduce class sizes, modernize classrooms and improve school technology.

* The Oxnard Elementary School District is making a second bid for a $57-million bond measure after narrowly losing in its first attempt in the March 4 election. Money from Measure L, formerly called Measure J, would go toward construction of two elementary schools as well as for portable classrooms, technology improvements and campus modernization.

* Ocean View School District, which stretches from south Oxnard to the Los Angeles County line, is seeking approval of a $4-million bond measure for school improvements. Measure N will be the first bond measure the district has placed on the ballot since 1963.

The June bond elections follow on the heels of several successful measures throughout the region. The Los Angeles Unified School District in April passed a $2.4-billion bond measure, the largest bond ever passed in California. Locally, voters in the Fillmore Unified School District in March passed a $12-million bond measure, while voters in the Hueneme Elementary School District approved a $4.7-million initiative.

The success of these past bond measures bodes well for the upcoming elections, county schools Supt. Charles Weis said.

“I think that those all indicate that public schools have strong public support right now and that the vast majority of the public have decided to invest in the school facilities,” Weis said.

“I think the vast majority of people in Ventura County realize how well their students are doing, and how well they’re doing compared to the state and the nation,” he said. “A lot have moved to Ventura County for the high quality of its schools.”

Ventura Unified’s $81-million school bond measure is the first to be placed on the ballot in nearly three decades. A $13-million school bond measure in 1969 failed.

Before Ventura school officials decided to go forward with Measure M, they formed a committee to create a long-range plan for the school district. The school committee determined they needed at least two more elementary schools to relieve crowding at both the west and east end, a middle school and a magnet high school. The money would also repair run-down campuses.

Debbie Golden, the bond campaign coordinator and the mother of three Ventura students, recalled being surprised after taking a bus tour to survey the state of school facilities and to find them in such disrepair.

“I believe [my kids] have had an excellent education in terms of the teachers, but I don’t believe the facilities are up to snuff,” Golden said. “That’s why I believe we have to pass this bond.”

Spirito has been busy soliciting endorsements from Ventura community groups and building a well-publicized partnership with the Ventura City Council to get the bond passed. In the meantime, the committee has been working at the grass-roots level.

So far, the bond campaign committee has been flooded with hundreds of small contributions from teachers and residents throughout the city. The group has been busy mailing fliers to residents and operating phone banks.

After failing to pass their previous $57-million bond measure in March by roughly 100 votes, the Oxnard Elementary School District’s campaign committee has rounded up more volunteers this time and vows to reach a larger group of registered voters before the June election.

“We just worried about the kids and schools and their parents,” trustee James Suter said of the first campaign. “This time, we’re going to the whole city.”

During the March campaign for Measure J, the Oxnard district’s initial bond measure, volunteers walked door-to-door once with principals, teachers and parents. They targeted areas around schools and spoke only to parents of schoolchildren. This time, campaign workers are hitting the streets more frequently in an effort to reach more voters, including those who do not have children attending school.

Backers of Measure M have also been making a more concerted effort to let people know where their polling places will be. During the March 4 election, many people said they went to their regular polling place not realizing it had changed because it was a special election.

So far, the Oxnard campaign committee has mailed about 4,000 letters reminding absentee voters to send in their ballots. An additional 11,000 letters were sent to residents who voted in previous elections.

The Oxnard group will make a special effort to reach out to voters in Hueneme Bay--made up mostly of retirees--and Mandalay Bay. The two areas reported a low number of “yes” votes during the last school bond election.

“I tell you, they’re working harder,” Suter said of the volunteers. “We have got to win. Because if we don’t win, I don’t know what we are going to do with our kids.”

All 16 district campuses converted to year-round school during the 1980s in order to make more space available and to keep up with exploding enrollment.

If the bond doesn’t pass, Oxnard school officials say they will have to consider unpopular measures for the district’s 14,288 students, such as a double-track session. That plan would require half of the student body to attend school in the morning, and the other half in the afternoon.

Farther south at Laguna Vista elementary school in the 2,320-student Ocean View School District, administrators are excited over what passage of their $4-million bond measure could mean for students.

The country school surrounded by a sod farm and fields of celery needs to repair its water well built in 1962. The school has no municipal water districts close enough to provide affordable water. In addition, bond money could bring Laguna Vista and the three other campuses 30 portable classrooms.

“It will allow us to add more class space and reduce our class sizes,” Principal Frank Samuels said.

At Tierra Vista elementary school, the cafeteria stage has been converted into a library. To reduce class sizes to 20 students, the library had to be turned into classroom space.

Looking at the district’s schools from the outside, the public may not realize how much some of the buildings are in need of repair, said campaign coordinator Jim Merrill.

“The maintenance people do such a good job of keeping things looking good, but things like leaking roofs you don’t notice; things like leaking doors and windows, you don’t see them,” Merrill said. “You can’t see that the [water] well needs repair.”

Most of the 5,232 voters in the sprawling Ocean View district are concentrated in a few spots in south Oxnard and Point Mugu while the rest live on area farms.

“It’s a pretty focused type of campaign,” said Merrill. “With that small amount of people, you can do a lot with phone calls and mailings.”

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School Bonds Breakdown

The election is Tuesday, June 3. Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. To find your polling location, call the registrar of voters at 654-2781.

VENTURA UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT (K-12)

Measure M

Bond amount: $81 million *

Cost to taxpayer per year: $27.75 per $100,000 in assessed property value

*

Needs: Cost

Upgrade classrooms, fields and parking lots: $61 million

Build east-end middle school: $20 million

Build magnet high school: $15 million

Improve school technology: $8 million

Build east-end elementary school: $7.5 million

Replace old portable classrooms: $4.5 million

Purchase land for west-end elementary: $2 million

Purchase new portables and expand facilities: $2 million

* Ventura Unified plans to use the $81-million bond to finance part of its $120-million school projects plan. The rest of the $39 million will come from selling surplus district property and acquiring developer fees and state funds.

OXNARD SCHOOL DISTRICT (K-8)

Measure L

Bond amount: $57 million

Cost to taxpayer per year: $30 per $100,000 in assessed property value

*

Needs: Cost

Build two elementary schools: $28 million

Modernize campuses and improve technology: $15 million to $20 million

Buy portable classrooms: $50,000 to $85,000 each

OCEAN VIEW SCHOOL DISTRICT (K-8)

Measure N

Bond amount: $4 million

Cost to taxpayer per year: $21 per $100,000 in assessed property value *

*

Needs: Cost

Buy at least 30 portables and build restrooms: $1.6 million to $2.2 million

Renovate classrooms: $1 million

Improve school safety: $250,000

Repair leaky roofs and windows: $175,000

Repair water well at Laguna Vista School: $150,000

Wire classrooms for technology: $140,000

Wire technology lab at Ocean View Junior High: $120,000

* The tax rate may fluctuate due to such factors as how many homeowners are in the district. Bonds are usually paid over a 25- to 30-year period.

Source: Ventura County school districts