School Trustee a Foe of Bond Issue

An unlikely foe opposes Anaheim Union High School District’s $132-million bond measure on the March 5 ballot: one of its own trustees.

“In these hard economic times,” board member Alexandria Coronado asks voters in March 5’s sample ballot, “do you really want to tax yourselves more? As citizens of the state of California, we are already taxed more than any other state in America. Enough is enough!”

Coronado’s name does not appear on the ballot statement, which is signed by an Anaheim anti-tax group of which she is a member. But in an interview, she confirmed that she did write the statement opposing the bond issue.

Still, word of her opposition has reached colleagues, some of whom have said they’re disappointed the board can’t unanimously favor the bond measure.

“It is easy for Alex to say ‘No, no, no’ [to taxes],” said fellow Trustee Thomas Holguin, who, with three colleagues, voted in November to put the measure on the ballot.

Coronado was absent from that vote but later said she would have voted against it.

It’s not easy asking voters to raise taxes, Holguin said.

But “what is best for our schools? Our neighborhoods? You have to have a spine. Are you going to look at the full picture or just what is going to get you a vote,” he asked.

Coronado, who is running for a seat on the Orange County Board of Education, said she agonized over the issue but ultimately felt compelled to speak the conscience of her taxpaying constituents.

“I understand why the district is doing this, and that we have facilities needs,” Coronado said.

But “if you look at the list of the so called ‘needs’ that have been put out by the school district, they are not needs, they are wants.... Do we really need white [marker] boards on all four walls, or the latest computer modems, the latest technology? ... Although those things are nice, that’s not where kids learn from. They learn from good teachers and books,” she said.

If the bond issue passes, district officials said they could use the money to modernize and renovate aging campuses and help ease overcrowding by building a new junior high school.

The measure would raise property taxes $30 annually for each $100,000 of a property’s assessed value. It is among seven similar measures in Orange County this March.

If a statewide education bond measure passes in November, the district could receive an additional $125 million in matching funds.

Coronado said it is time for the district “to think outside the box” and consider alternative sources of funding for maintenance and renovation projects.

She proposes that the district set up a privately managed trust fund that would pay dividends for such purposes. She said she would back a bond issue specifically for building schools.

Assistant Supt. John Larner said the district doesn’t have the capital to set up a trust fund, and that the money it sets aside for maintenance is barely enough to keep up with the schools’ needs.

Coronado said she sympathizes with the district’s plight and won’t campaign actively.

But others consider her ballot statement a form of campaigning.

“I am really shocked at this,” Larner said. “I don’t consider writing the rebuttal [to the bond measure] remaining neutral.”