Seven Districts Seek Funds for Campus Repairs

If at first you don’t succeed, put it on the ballot again.

That seems to be the motto for school bond supporters in four Los Angeles County school districts. As Tuesday’s election approaches, proponents are intensifying efforts to persuade voters to reverse previous defeats and pass measures to repair crumbling, overcrowded school facilities.

In Compton and Lawndale, bond supporters are campaigning for a second time. In San Gabriel, a third. And in Torrance, much to the chagrin of a small cadre of opponents, voters will face a fourth bond measure in less than two years.

“We’ve defeated three of these things, and here they are again like the Energizer bunny,” said Torrance bond foe Rick Marshall.

$416.2 Million in Bond Measures

But bond advocates in the suburban South Bay city, and elsewhere, say that the conditions of their schools warrant the repeated attempts to raise money for badly needed repairs. Throughout Los Angeles County, voters in seven districts are being asked to approve a total of $416.2 million in bond measures.

In Inglewood, Santa Monica-Malibu and the Antelope Valley’s Westside Union district, measures are on the ballot for the first time and face little or no organized opposition.

Compton voters face the same $107-million measure they rejected in April. In the other districts, bond advocates have tried to make measures more appealing--slashing the amount sought, shortening the time needed to pay the bonds off, and drawing up detailed spending plans.

Some, such as Compton and Torrance, have changed strategies, opting for a soft-sell approach. Campaign yard signs no longer freckle lawns across the two cities. Instead, supporters concentrate on phone pitches and mailers.

“The focus is on talking to people on the telephone. It’s not about doing battle in the streets,” said Torrance District Supt. Arnold Plank.

These days, school bond measures are a common fixture on local ballots. Districts face surging enrollments and are juggling resources to accommodate class-size reductions. Meanwhile, a squeeze on budgets and intense competition for state funds have forced many to defer long-needed repairs.

In some districts, voters have been willing to approve general obligation bonds earmarked for schools. The bonds are sold to investors who are repaid with interest over a set period, usually 25 to 30 years. To pay off the bonds, taxpayers are charged an annual amount based on their property’s assessed value.

As in most school bond campaigns, supporters this time around are emphasizing the desperate needs for funds. In Inglewood, pro-bond volunteers pound the streets, telephone voters and distribute mailers detailing the schools’ conditions.

“If you look at some of the schools, you’ll see that no matter how good the students are, no matter how committed the teachers are, they can’t possibly learn effectively in the surroundings that they’re taught in,” said Norman Cravens, chairman of the Inglewood bond campaign committee.

Cravens said that roofs in Inglewood schools leak, asbestos needs removal and space is so limited that libraries and science labs have been converted into classroom space. More than 60% of the district’s temporary classroom bungalows are 30 years or older.

As in most of the districts, Inglewood’s bond supporters draw attention to statewide Proposition 1A, which would raise $9.2 billion to repair and build schools across California. Except under special circumstances, the state bond requires local districts to put up local money to earn state funds. The state bond measure promises 80% of the funds for urgent projects in urban areas if school districts can raise 20%.

If the state measure passes and local voters approve a $131-million bond, that could mean a windfall for Inglewood schools, said district Supt. McKinley Nash. But if the state measure passes and the local measure fails, the chances of repairing the district’s schools would be slim, he said.

“It’s a do-or-die situation,” Nash said.

Opposition in Some Districts

So far, Inglewood’s bond supporters have campaigned with little interference from foes. But in Compton, San Gabriel and Torrance, opposition that managed to scuttle previous bond attempts has resurfaced. Measures in those districts previously garnered simple majorities but fell shy of the two-thirds vote needed for approval.

Opponents acknowledge the need for repairs but argue that district bureaucrats cannot be trusted to frugally manage more taxpayer money. Instead, they say, districts should trim the fat before pleading for more money.

Supporters in Torrance and San Gabriel say that they have learned from past mistakes. In Torrance, bond advocates sliced $38 million from the measure that failed three times--the last, in April, by less than 3%. In San Gabriel, bonds in 1993 and 1994 proposed spending money only on the district’s high school. This year, advocates have promised to spread the $53-million bond among other sites.

“This time around, it’s about more than the high school. We have a specific plan for renovations at every site drawn up with the help of some 200 volunteers,” said Lee Freeman, a school board member and treasurer of Citizens for San Gabriel Schools.

But nowhere have bond proponents met more intense opposition than in Compton. There, the measure has split the school board and drawn fire from city officials, much as the state takeover of the district five years ago has.

Mayor Omar Bradley said the state should make the repairs that schools desperately need without asking property owners to shell out more in taxes. Property owners already pay some of the county’s highest taxes, he said.

“If more money was the solution, [the state] should have given us more money five years ago,” he said.

City officials complained that raising taxes would deter businesses from moving to Compton and providing valuable tax revenues for the city and schools. And, Bradley said, district residents will have no voice in how bond funds are spent.

But Randolph Ward, the district’s state-appointed administrator, said a democratically elected citizens advisory board will oversee bond spending. And, he warned, if the bond fails, urgent repairs will take funds away from other educational needs.

“We have to continue taking money from the general fund to fix our facilities if we don’t have bond money,” Ward said. “And where does that money come from? It comes from classroom supplies. It comes from teachers’ salaries.”

The Compton measure has won the support of the American Civil Liberties Union, which filed suit a year ago to force the district to make urgent repairs.

Times staff writer Martha Willman and correspondents Sue McAllister and Richard Winton contributed to this story.