Voters Cast Ballots on School Bonds, Civic Improvements

Voters in seven school districts went to the polls Tuesday to decide the fate of nearly $372 million in bonds for school construction and improvements, while a measure that would have blocked a town square development in Manhattan Beach went down to defeat.

In the Hacienda-La Puente Unified School District, a $100-million bond measure, the largest in Tuesday’s election, was leading by a 4-1 margin in early returns.

A $22-million bond measure in the Glendora Unified School District was approved with more than 77% of the vote.

But a $52-million bond measure for the William S. Hart Union High School District in growing Santa Clarita appeared to have lost by a very narrow margin.

With all 56 precincts reporting, Measure S tallied 66.1% in favor and 33.9% against, with 16,058 ballots cast. School officials were pessimistic that uncounted absentee ballots could change the outcome.

All of the bond measures needed two-thirds approval for passage.

Officials said Santa Clarita’s bond measure would have helped pay for five new schools to accommodate a student population that they say will nearly double in five years.

The measure would have cost voters $17 per $100,000 of assessed value annually, officials estimated. Had it been approved, it would have brought in $143 million in matching funds from the state. Those dollars, combined with developer fees, would have given the district $294 million to renovate existing campuses and build the new schools.

School bonds were also on ballots in Claremont, the Palos Verdes Peninsula, Rowland Heights and the Wiseburn district in the Hawthorne-El Segundo area. Complete results were not available.

Cash raised from bond sales along with state funds could be used to build new facilities where schools strain under bulging enrollments or to modernize aging structures, school officials said. They also say bond money is a relatively inexpensive way to repair roofs and plumbing, and rewire classrooms for computers.

School districts are turning to bond measures with increased regularity because taxpayers have become more willing to invest in education, administrators said. The money couldn’t come soon enough for some, they add, because maintenance and improvements have been deferred for more than two decades since the passage of Proposition 13 in 1978.

Cashed-strapped schools are having to find more space so they can join the state’s drive to reduce class size. Plus, there is the incentive of matching state funds through Proposition 1A, officials say.

In Manhattan Beach, the zoning measure that called for public use rather than commercial development on a three-acre parcel of city-owned land lost by a nearly 5-3 ratio.

City Council members and two residents’ groups wanted the former site of the now-defunct Metlox Pottery plant to be commercially developed into a small town square with a 40-room hotel and a few shops and offices.

A group calling itself Residents for a Quality City opposed that proposal and qualified Measure 2000-A, a ballot initiative calling for the land to be rezoned for public use only.

The measure’s supporters contended that turning the land into commercial space would bring traffic and congestion while destroying their community’s village-like atmosphere.