School Bonds Are Seen as Critical

At Bedell School in Santa Paula, the roofs leak and the floors are often saturated with mildew. At McKevett School, termites are eating out the walls. Thille School’s bathrooms break down regularly because of antiquated plumbing.

The schools in the Santa Paula Elementary School District are, on average, 35 years old. And they are in desperate need of repairs, Supt. Bonnie Bruington said. So for the first time in almost four decades, the school district is urging voters to pass a local bond to pay for improvements.

“This has gone on too long,” Bruington said. “The needs are just critical.”

Fillmore’s schools aren’t much better. But their main problem is overcrowding--the elementary campuses are bursting at their seams, and the district expects more than 1,000 new students in the next six years. Fillmore educators want voters to pass a bond to build a new elementary school.

On March 7, residents in both west Ventura County cities will cast their votes on local school bond initiatives. Measure D would raise $10 million to renovate the seven schools in the Santa Paula Elementary School District. Measure E would provide $7.5 million to build a new elementary school and repair existing campuses in the Fillmore Unified School District.

Both bonds must receive two-thirds approval to pass.

The initiatives would also make both school districts eligible for state school construction money. Though California voters passed a $6.7-billion statewide bond in 1998, districts have to come up with matching funds to receive their share. Santa Paula is eligible for about $40 million in state money, and Fillmore could receive up to $7 million.

Voters throughout Ventura County--and California--will also decide on another school bond initiative next week. Proposition 26 would reduce the vote needed for a local school bond from a two-thirds majority to 50% plus one vote, making it easier for school districts to gather the necessary votes.

With the election less than two weeks away, parents, teachers and school board members in both Santa Paula and Fillmore are walking precincts, calling registered voters and sending out mailers. They are taking out ads in newspapers, posting fliers and setting up Web sites.

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Santa Paula’s bond--coupled with the matching state funds--would pay for repairs and renovations in all seven schools. That would include installing new heaters, fans, roofs and carpet in many of the classrooms and fixing the plumbing at several schools.

The 3,900-student district would also upgrade its electrical and computer systems, because now in some schools, teachers have to shut off computers in their classrooms so neighboring teachers can turn theirs on.

David Luna, principal of Webster School, said the bond is long overdue. Santa Paula schools need face-lifts, he said.

“It’s going to cost us a little bit of money to fix them up,” he said. “The schools need that. The children deserve that. And the taxpayers have to realize that.”

Educators say the district also needs to address school security systems that could affect the safety of students and staff. Maintenance personnel need to repair fire and smoke alarms, replace broken windows, install indoor locks and add outdoor lights, they said.

“Security is a big issue nowadays, with everything going on,” said Santa Paula school board member Dan Robles. “We are trying to ensure the safety of everyone and monitor the school grounds better.”

In addition to modernizing campuses, the district plans to build additional classrooms to replace portables. “Some of our schools look like portable cities,” Supt. Bruington said. “And a lot of [them] have eaten up playground space.”

Without the bond money, schools would have to continue purchasing portables to house the growing student enrollment. The cafeterias and libraries would become increasingly more crowded. And the district might have to abandon its class-size reduction programs, school officials said.

If the bond passes, Santa Paula property owners would pay an average of an additional $3.19 per month per $100,000 of assessed value of their house.

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In 1997, Fillmore voters passed a $12-million bond that funded construction of the new middle school. But now the 3,700-student Fillmore Unified district needs a new elementary school to ease overcrowding and house incoming students, district officials said. The elementary schools currently house about 800 students each. And the district expects hundreds of new students to move into the area in coming years because of new housing developments.

The new school would open in 2002 and would house about 600 students in north Fillmore. The bond--along with developer fees, city contributions and state money--would also provide funds for repairs and renovations at the district’s six schools. The district would fix the swimming pool, replace floors and roofs, repair plumbing systems and upgrade electrical wiring.

“We need this bond to pass,” said Fillmore Unified Supt. Mario Contini, co-chair of the bond committee. “If it doesn’t pass, we will lose money. Our schools will be more overcrowded. We will have a proliferation of portables. And we won’t be able to do a lot of the renovations that need to be done.”

If the bond passes, the average homeowner would pay an additional $3.66 per month per $100,000 of assessed value of their house. If the bond fails, the district may have to switch its elementary schools to a year-round schedule, offer double sessions or abandon class-size reduction. The district would also lose the available state money, as well as the earmarked property tax revenues for the school.

“We need this school,” said Kathy Meza, 47, who is helping campaign for the bond. “If we don’t get it now, our campuses are going to be even more overcrowded.”

Meza’s two children attended Fillmore schools, and her daughter Lydia now teaches at San Cayetano School. “I tell people that my kids are grown, but that it’s our community,” she said. “And if we don’t take care of our town, who will?”

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Local educators are also campaigning for Proposition 26. A simple majority, they say, would enable Ventura County districts to pass more bonds, build more schools and modernize existing ones. The average school in the county is 44 years old and needs to be renovated, said Stan Mantooth, associate superintendent for Ventura County schools.

“I don’t believe our schools are unsafe or substandard, but things are catching up with us,” he said. “We need to be able to equip our schools for the next century.”

Ten school bonds have been passed in Ventura County in the last three years, including a $57-million bond for Oxnard Elementary School District and a $49-million bond for Pleasant Valley Elementary School District.

But it wasn’t easy for any of the districts. In the Conejo Valley, for example, voters rejected two bonds in as many years before approving an $88-million initiative in November 1998. And voters in Moorpark voted down bonds twice in 1998.

“Even though some of the school districts have been successful, some haven’t been,” Mantooth said. “And it’s an ongoing process. There’s never enough, and the money that there is doesn’t go far enough.”

Opponents of Proposition 26 argue that if more local school bonds pass, property taxes will increase significantly--back to where they were before Proposition 13.

“If Proposition 26 passes, that’s the beginning of an avalanche,” said Jere Robings, a local taxpayer advocate. “People who were not homeowners in 1978 don’t realize how high property taxes went up. People have to be very careful because it’s their home and their property that they’re putting up as collateral for these bonds.”