Schools Work to Cement Their Bonds

From cocktail parties to voter registration blitzes, the push is on as three Orange County school districts--Huntington Beach Union, Santa Ana Unified and Capistrano Unified--urge residents to vote for millions of dollars in bonds to repair old schools and build new ones.

A fourth, Irvine Unified, is seeking voter approval of a parcel tax to salvage that district’s arts, music and science programs.

Capistrano Unified School District officials are depending on persuasion at school events to push a bond measure that would provide $166 million toward renovating the district’s aging schools.

Last week at elementary schools, PTA members and parent volunteers plugged the measure at Back-to-School Night, made voter registration forms available to parents and fielded questions.

If passed Nov. 2, the measure would match $65 million in local funds with $101 million in state money. The measure asks residents in non-Mello Roos areas of the district to pay about $15 annually per $100,000 of assessed value on their homes.

The revenue would be used to build four schools to ease overcrowding and to make repairs on aging schools--whose sites are up to 30 years old.

For Santa Ana Unified, passage of a $145-million bond would bring an additional $184.6 million from the state. The money would be used to build two high schools and 11 elementary schools, and to expand Valley High School to accommodate 600 additional students.

That district also has informed parents of the upcoming vote at Back-to-School Night and special informational meetings, where hundreds have turned out.

“There is a high level of awareness in the Santa Ana community about our facility crisis,” said Michael Vail, senior director of facilities planning for the district. “And it is a crisis--anyone who drives by our sites can see all the portable classrooms there.”

Santa Ana’s bond effort, called Children and Education First, is co-chaired by the PTA president and the head of the local chamber of commerce. Fund-raising efforts have ranged from distributing pamphlets at Back-to-School Night to after-work mixers.

Promoting in both districts has been done by unpaid volunteers, but occasionally the line has been blurred between expressing personal opinion and campaigning by district personnel.

No Public Funds or Personnel Allowed

Educators must be careful. Volunteers may distribute information advocating the bond’s approval, but paid employees can’t--even though the school board supports the measure.

Teachers, principals and other district employees paid with public tax dollars for their time said they are simply raising voter awareness, not supporting one position over another.

As long as district employees are not spending public funds on assembling or distributing information advocating one stance, or passing out the voter registration forms themselves, the promotion is legal, according to the secretary of state’s office and the Fair Political Practices Commission.

“In general, public funds or public resources may be used impartially to educate or inform citizens about a ballot measure,” the FPPC says in a statement posted on its Web site. “But if a communication directly or indirectly urges an election result, the agency responsible for sending it may be required by the Political Reform Act to disclose the source and amount of money used for printing and mailing. Violation of the disclosure law may result in fines. Other state laws prohibit use of public funds for campaign purposes.”

Sometimes, though, educators come close to the line. At Back-to-School Night at John Malcom Elementary School in Laguna Niguel, volunteers passed out the voter registration forms, but Principal Lois Anderson also took the opportunity to make a speech highlighting the districtwide infrastructure improvements that would occur if residents approve the proposed measure and urged them to vote.

“I had a short parent meeting before and after classroom presentations about the bond,” Anderson said. “We can’t tell ‘em, ‘You have to go out and vote yes on this bond,’ but we can say, ‘If it passes, this is what will happen, and the school board is really hoping you’ll exercise your right to vote.’ ”

Although employees can’t advocate approval of the bond, they are expected to assist those who can--PTA members and parent volunteers, Anderson said.

“The hope is that we will cooperate within the bounds of what’s legally acceptable: support volunteer committees, set up tables at Back-to-School Night, display the poster that gives information, encourage parents to vote,” she said, adding that she hasn’t received any negative feedback from parents about the push for votes.

In Santa Ana, the business community, which has long maintained strong ties with the school district, has been integral in pushing the bond measure. The Santa Ana Chamber of Commerce voted unanimously to back the bond after the district agreed to establish an oversight committee and create a reserve fund for future capital expenses.

“The business community truly believes we need to be improving the education product coming out of our public school system,” said Tom Metzler, chamber president. “They also truly believe that the quality and condition of the facilities in which [children] learn is a critical element to improve the educational product.”

Both Metzler and the district’s Vail acknowledge that there is opposition to the bond, but little of substance has been done to fight its passage, they said.

“I am just tickled pink with the enthusiasm we’re getting from all sectors of our city,” Metzler said. “The effort to bring all sectors of the community under one umbrella is really working.”

In Irvine--where voters will be asked Nov. 2 to approve a levy of $95 per parcel to fund student safety, science, technology, class-size reduction and neighborhood schools programs--the PTA is doing the active campaigning. Members are distributing fliers off-campus at Back-to-School Nights and they’ve been going door to door to solicit support. So far, reaction to their efforts has been mostly favorable, group members say.

The district hopes to raise $3.7 million a year during the parcel tax’s four-year assessment. The measure also allows the district to seek voter approval of four-year extensions.

Huntington Beach Union High School District is employing tactics similar to Capistrano’s to drum up support for a $123-million repair bond that goes before the voters Nov. 9. Voter registration materials and photos showing symptoms of infrastructure damage figure prominently in the district’s Back-to-School Night programs, said Supt. Susan Roper.

Roper said pictures help illustrate the plight of the district’s seven schools, including Fountain Valley High, where one building is sinking so badly into swampland that it will have to be relocated, and Huntington Beach High, where part of a structure was built in 1926.

‘We Want to Be Very, Very Careful’

“We can’t get inside the wall to show the crushed plumbing and the fact that all of the electrical wiring is antiquated and can’t support the technology kids need for the 21st century,” she said. “There are cracks in the walls. Five buildings in the district are sinking due to the shifting of the soil; there are cracked foundations.”

In support of the bond measure, a coalition of business leaders and school board members is distributing a promotional newspaper, calling residents to ask what information they need to make a decision, mailing applications for absentee ballots and encouraging residents to vote yes on the bond, said Bonnie Castrey, a school board member involved with the group.

“We can advocate that other people be informed, be enlightened, but we want to be very, very careful, because I can’t spend one penny--and that includes my time--on this,” Roper said.

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School Fund-Raisers

Four Orange County school districts are floating multimillion-dollar bond or tax measures in November to fund much-needed construction and repairs or ease overcrowding and shrink class sizes. Parent-teacher groups are using Back to School Nights, door-to-door solicitation and newsletters to promote the measures.

Capistrano Unified:

$166 million

Build 4 schools, ease overcrowding, repairs

*

Santa Ana Unified:

$329.6 million

Build 13 schools, ease overcrowding

*

Huntington Beach Union:

$123 million

Replace sinking buildings, repairs

*

Irvine Unified:

$14.8 million

Class-size reduction, salvage arts and science programs

Source: Orange County registrar of voters sample ballot