Ojai Voters to Decide on School Bond

The Ojai Unified School District has decided to put a $15-million bond measure on the Nov. 4 ballot, and Pleasant Valley School District board members are expected to vote next week to put a $49-million bond up for a vote.

The measures come as four other county school districts are considering fall bond elections; four districts have passed measures this year.

“We have a great sense of community in Ojai and there’s been a great turnaround in the economy,” Assistant Supt. Bob Smith said. Many residents have said they would pay $30 a year for every $100,000 of assessed property valuation, he said.

Ojai, which has 4,000 students in eight schools, would use the money for earthquake-safe windows, upgraded plumbing, electrical and gas systems, carpets and additional restrooms.

The district will need an additional $13 million over the next 10 years, Smith said. These funds, however, will be sought from state sources and other grants.

The Pleasant Valley bond would cost $20 to $22 a year for every $100,000 of assessed property valuation. The board will decide Thursday whether to put the issue on the November ballot, but it could be yanked off the ballot at no cost by Aug. 8 if the issue doesn’t have enough community support.

Although four bond measures have failed by narrow margins since 1991, Associate Supt. Howard Hamilton said he is optimistic because the economy has improved and President Clinton has helped make education a national goal.

Also, parents realize there simply isn’t enough space in the district’s 13 schools for the 7,100 students, Hamilton said.

“We’re in a pinch,” board member Val Rains said. “We used to have two classes of 60 kids, now [because of state-encouraged class-size reductions] we have three classes.”

In some of the schools, Hamilton said, students have been forced to meet in kitchens, in teachers’ lounges and on stages.

The bond would help pay off $4.5 million in debt for Tierra Linda School in eastern Camarillo, break ground in October for an elementary school on Upland and Lewis roads and build another elementary school in the Santa Rosa Valley.

The rest of the money would be used to modernize the remaining schools. Some of the schools are so old that plugging in a coffee pot “blows out the [circuit] breakers,” Hamilton said.