Brea Schools Take the Plunge, Try $27-Million Bond Measure

Three months after voters in the Buena Park School District passed the county’s first school bond in more than two decades, another district hopes to replicate that success.

Trustees of the Brea Olinda Unified School District agreed Tuesday to back a $27-million school bond to create new classrooms and modernize and renovate campuses. The June 8 bond measure is the first the district has pursued in several decades, officials said.

Supt. Peggy Lynch said she was heartened by voter approval of a $13.8-million bond for Buena Park schools in November, but added that it will still take a lot of work to pass the district’s own measure.

“Sure it’s encouraging,” Lynch said, “but there are no guarantees.”

A group of parents and other city residents are creating a campaign committee to pass the school bond, which would cost taxpayers $28 per $100,000 in assessed property value per year, Lynch said.

School bonds require two-thirds voter approval, and Orange County school districts haven’t always been so lucky at the polls.

Before the passage of Buena Park’s bond to refurbish campuses, general-obligation school bonds had a seven-straight losing streak in the county. The last bond passed before Buena Park’s was in 1975.

Several school districts, including Laguna Beach Unified and Santa Ana Unified, are considering bond measures this year. Officials at the Huntington Beach Union High School District also need extra money to fix leaky roofs and update electrical wiring systems, but consultants informed the district last week that there wasn’t enough public support for such a referendum.

Brea Olinda may have better prospects. A year ago the district hired San Ramon-based Price Research to gauge community support for a $27-million bond. The survey indicated that the proposal has a 70% approval rating, which is above the minimum 66.6% needed, Lynch said.

Unlike some other school districts, Brea Olinda did not have the option of selling, leasing or developing vacant land because it does not own any. Yet the district determined it needed about $40 million in improvements for its nine campuses, including seven that are more than 25 years old: Brea Junior High, and Arovista, Brea Country Hills, William E. Fanning, Laurel, Mariposa and Olinda elementary schools. All the district’s schools are in Brea.

The district also would garner an estimated $10.8 million in state matching funds if the bond measure passes in order to make the improvements recommended by Brea-based architectural firm Y’Deen Associates.

“It’s like a house with plumbing and wiring and so forth,” said Dorothy Allen, a school board member. “Everything wears out.”

Pipes are old. Lighting and electrical wiring need upgrading. Overcrowding, particularly at Brea Junior High School, further strains the aging buildings. And some do not meet the requirements of the federal Americans with Disabilities Act, said school board President Kenneth Kegel.

None of the bond money would be used for new schools. But the district plans to build more classrooms to continue implementing the class size reduction program that limits classes in most primary grades to 20 students.

“We’re not being profligate and have not been,” Kegel said. “We’ve used our money properly.”

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Times staff writer Liz Seymour contributed to this report.