Trustees to Put School Bond Back on Ballot

School trustees agreed Tuesday to set a special election for April to again ask voters for more than $16 million to improve their nine campuses.

The Moorpark Unified School District will place a $16.2-million bond measure on the April 14 ballot. A bond for the same amount failed in November after it fell less than 2 percentage points short of the two-thirds approval required.

Trustees debated whether to increase the bond amount but decided against such a move. They did, however, agree to expand the list of improvements to be made.

“I don’t even want to risk the appearance of being greedy,” said trustee David Pollock. “I don’t want to change anything.”

Trustees said the April ballot would be less crowded than November’s, giving their bond measure a better chance of being approved.

“I think we have a very good shot at it,” trustee Clint Harper said.

On last month’s ballot, voters faced a measure asking them to pay higher taxes to maintain parks at the same time the district wanted more money for schools.

“If the city measure hadn’t been on there we probably would have won,” said Harper, who added that the more contentious parks measure brought a greater number of tax opponents to the polls.

If the bond is approved, the bulk of its proceeds would be earmarked for expanding the district’s sole high school.

About $9 million would be used to build a new gym, a second music room, 10 classrooms and five science labs to keep up with enrollment growth. Moorpark High School’s population has doubled, to 1,750 students, since it opened in 1988.

Other funds would go to improve school technology and renovate the district’s two oldest campuses: Flory Elementary and Chaparral Middle schools.