Schools to Make Do Without Bond Money

Though they lost ballot measures that would have given them millions to make school repairs, district officials in Thousand Oaks and Moorpark are still planning construction projects for this summer.

Conejo Valley Unified officials, denied a $97-million bond measure by voters April 14, say they are doing the best they can with $1.4 million in available funds to fix up some of the district’s 30-year-old schools.

“We took the projects that we thought were the worst,” said Sean Corrigan, district planning and facilities director.

Officials decided which projects were most crucial in part by walking the campuses and listing the number of leaky-roof complaints. Even though there is plenty more to be done, the district can afford only about three dozen projects, which they hope will be completed by the end of summer, Corrigan said.

“The roofs will continue to leak and the sidewalks could catch someone’s toe,” Corrigan said. But the district is taking all efforts to make sure that its campuses are safe, he said.

“We’d close a playground down if it was too dangerous,” he said.

If trustees approve the project list today, the district will begin to replace parking lots, re-roof buildings, upgrade lighting and do termite-control at certain elementary and secondary campuses. The work is expected to cost $1.4 million and will come out of the annual deferred maintenance fund.

Another $1.5 million in work that officials had hoped to pursue over the summer has been dropped from the schedule because of the bond measure failure, Corrigan said.

In addition, failure of the bond measure means the district’s newest school will be operating at the “bare minimum,” Corrigan said. Lang Ranch Elementary, slated to open in the fall, lost $900,000 in funding that would have been drawn from the bond proceeds.

The cut will mean fewer computer hookups in classrooms, and less outdoor play equipment and office furniture, Corrigan said. “We’ll just have to scrimp and save,” Corrigan said. “We were all disappointed the bond didn’t pass.”

In Moorpark, school officials still plan this summer to resurface the roofs of some campuses and to bring at least six portables onto Moorpark High School to accommodate student growth--using state and district money instead of bond proceeds.

Projects the district planned to complete this summer using bond money will not take place because voters rejected the district’s $16.2-million school bond measure, said Supt. Thomas Duffy.

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Projects the bond measure was slated to cover this summer included work on locker rooms and the library at Chaparral Middle School, preparation for construction of music and science buildings at Moorpark High and a basketball court at Flory School.

In the meantime, school officials say, they are studying whether there are any other sources to fund some of these projects. The district has not decided whether it will pursue another bond measure.