5 School Districts Plan to Fix Up Campuses With New Bond Funds

They had lots of volunteers, broad community support--and a good measure of plain, old-fashioned luck.

Officials in the five local school districts whose voters granted them the necessary two-thirds approval for bond issues--$327 million in all--counted their blessings and told how they did it Wednesday as they prepared to make long-needed campus repairs and build new classrooms.

“We certainly didn’t have a lot of money, but we had a lot of heart, and a lot of support from our parents, teachers, [other] staff and our community,” said ABC Unified School District Supt. Thomas J. Riley.

“And we were very fortunate,” added Riley, who spent last weekend walking precincts along with hundreds of volunteers in the district, which includes Artesia, Cerritos and Hawaiian Gardens. “It is really hard to get that two-thirds support, and we won by only about 200 votes.”

Joining ABC in the winner’s circle of Los Angeles County school districts after Tuesday’s special bond measure elections were euphoric--and thankful--leaders in East Whittier, Glendale, Hawthorne and Monrovia. But similar measures were defeated in three other districts--El Segundo, Pomona and Torrance. Although all three measures won simple majorities, they fell short of the nearly 66.7% margin required to pass.

“We are just thrilled,” said Monrovia Unified’s Supt. Louise Taylor, “but my heart goes out to [the districts where measures failed] because I know how much time and effort these things take. . . . I think fate got into it.”

The winning measures attracted little or no organized opposition and enjoyed active support from business, political and community leaders as well as from parents and school staff. Most districts told voters exactly how their money would be spent, and some conducted tours of campuses with leaky roofs, decrepit plumbing, crumbling playgrounds and crowded classrooms.

Glendale Unified’s $186-million bond proposal was the largest of 26 such measures approved in the state Tuesday, according to School Services of California, a private consulting firm that advises districts. They were among a near-record 38 districts seeking voter approval for bond measures. (Thirty-nine districts tried to pass bond measures in November 1995, but only 18 succeeded, the consulting firm said.)

Before the Glendale Board of Education placed a measure on the ballot, officials hired a political consulting firm to help ascertain how much voters would be willing to pay.

“We matched our needs with the realities of what the voters were willing to pay,” said district spokesman Vic Pallos. “Then we identified our ‘yes’ voters early on, and we made sure they cast their ballots.”

The effort included phone banks, precinct walkers, a 5,500-ballot absentee voter drive and volunteers to take people to the polls, Pallos said. And at 6:30 a.m. Tuesday, 125 high school students spent an hour distributing “get out the vote” reminders to “friendly” households.

In Torrance, Measure A also enjoyed broad support, but it ran afoul of a determined citizens group that hammered away with its criticisms. They ranged from the kind of bond measure the district had chosen to how some of the monies would be used. Torrance opted for a parcel tax that varied with the type of property and would increase over the years instead of the more commonly used general obligation bonds.

Rick Marshall, chairman of the No on A Committee, also said voters were angry over an earlier facilities maintenance levy that the school board had approved without taking it to voters.

“So they were happy to vote on this one and express their opinion on these things,” said Marshall, who noted that the Torrance measure, with 57%, had the smallest ‘yes’ vote of any of the eight school bonds measures on Tuesday’s ballots.

For El Segundo Unified Supt. William N. Manahan, however, that just represents an aberration of the democratic process.

“This means a minority is in control, and that is just not fair,” said Manahan, whose own district came achingly close to prevailing. El Segundo’s measure failed to clear the two-thirds hurdle by just 69 votes, and, with 200 absentee ballots remaining to be counted Wednesday, there was a slight possibility that the measure might prevail after all.

Low registration among district parents, low turnout and a small but vocal group of opponents in a community that actually is part of neighboring Manhattan Beach hurt El Segundo’s chances, Manahan said. He said false statements by opponents late in the election made things even worse.

But he was willing to guess that the board of education will try again, perhaps in the regularly scheduled district elections this November.

“The problems are still here,” Manahan said of the long list of repairs and other improvements needed at the district’s aging campuses. “They are not going to go away, so we really don’t have much choice.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

School Bond Issues

Of the eight school districts in Los Angeles County that sought bond issue authorizations in Tuesday’s elections, five garnered the necessary two-thirds vote.

Approved

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District % Voting Yes Bond Amount ABC Unified 68.0 $59 million East Whitter City 71.5 $20 million Glendale Unified 74.3 $186 million Hawthorne 77.3 $28 million Monrovia Unified 73.0 $34 million Total Approved: $327 million

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REJECTED

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El Segundo Unified 64.5 $24 million Pomona Unified 63.1 $35 million Torrance Unified 57.8 $80.5 million Total failed: $139.5 million

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* FINAL ELECTION RESULTS: B5