Pleasant Valley Board OKs 5th Attempt to Pass Bond Measure

After a string of close but unsuccessful bids, Pleasant Valley School District trustees agreed Thursday to pursue a fifth school bond campaign this decade by placing a $49-million bond measure on the November election ballot.

The unanimous decision comes on the heels of several regional school bond victories last month. On its first try, the Ventura Unified School District passed an $81-million bond measure, the largest in county history. Ocean View School District made a successful bid for its $4-million bond initiative.

And after one failed try this spring, Oxnard School District voters narrowly passed their $57-million bond measure by about 100 votes.

Camarillo is no stranger to near-misses. Since 1991, four bond initiatives placed on the ballot gained majority support, but failed to receive the 66.7% voter approval required for passage. In the last three bond elections, backers were only between 1 and 2.3 percentage points away from victory.

While the four losses are discouraging, officials at the 7,100-student district in Camarillo still have faith that this fifth try will end in victory.

“There have been some disheartening defeats,” said Stephen Hanke, the district’s assistant superintendent. “But I still believe in the ability of our district to bounce back and for our community to really see where the needs are.”

With an improved economy and the success of neighboring school bond measures, trustees are hopeful that Pleasant Valley’s time has come.

“Maybe the timing is right,” trustee Ricardo Amador said. “[The climate] may be better than it has in the past.”

The $49-million bond measure--which would be used to build two elementary schools, renovate and modernize campuses, and pay off a $4.5-million debt--is the smallest amount the district has asked voters for in six years.

Voters would be asked each year to pay $23.31 per $100,000 in assessed property value for up to 30 years, district officials said.

“I cannot say whether the bond will pass by two-thirds or not. That is up to the public,” trustee Virginia Norris said. “But I know we need the bond. Our schools are overcrowded and some schools have waiting lists, so sometimes children closest to the school can’t get in.”

After a $75-million bond measure ended in defeat, with a “yes” vote of only 59.9% in June 1991, the district pursued a more modest $55 million by dumping plans for a middle school as well as a child-care center at each campus. Still, that bond initiative only received support of 64.4%, not enough for the two-thirds required.

The district tried twice more, in June and November 1995, to get its $55-million bond passed, but both bids narrowly failed.

Amador recalled the disappointment he felt after the most recent campaign. He was a regular guest on Spanish radio programs, where he informed voters how their money would be used.

“We worked pretty hard to get votes in support of that,” he said. “To come that close . . . it makes you wonder.”

The latest bond plan strips away $6 million in renovation funds from the earlier plans. The district has already used state money earmarked for building renovations and dipped into its General Fund to renovate six of its 14 campuses.

With a crunch for classroom space prompted by a statewide initiative to reduce class sizes and with up to 2,800 more students expected by 2007, the bond money would be used to build two 600-student elementary schools to serve kindergarten to fifth grades. The district is now exploring sites for schools near Lewis and Upland roads and in the Santa Rosa Valley.

Along with renovating its eight other campuses, the district would use the bond money to repay $4.5 million it borrowed to build Tierra Linda School, which serves 720 kindergarten to third-grade students in east Camarillo.