School Board Backs Bond Issue for Ballot

The Buena Park School District board voted unanimously this week to endorse a $13.8-million bond issue to upgrade and renovate the district’s aging schools.

Enrollment--now at 5,200--has been growing in the district’s six elementary schools and one middle school, officials said, causing even greater strain on the deteriorating buildings. Roofs leak and heating and cooling systems malfunction. The schools are riddled with asbestos and do not meet the standards of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The bond issue will appear on the Nov. 3 ballot. Educators initially tallied $45 million worth of repairs, but a financial consultant hired by the school board said residents would be unwilling to support a tax increase greater than $20 a year. Under the proposed measure, residents would pay about $18 a year.

The district must reverse an unlucky streak in Orange County: No local bond measure has won voter approval here in eight years. Supt. Carol Holmes Riley said administrators, teachers, parents and school board members must participate in the bond campaign to ensure passage. The bond initiative will need approval from two-thirds of the city’s 13,115 registered voters.