School Bonds Put to Voters in 2 Districts

Voters will decide today on school bonds that would be used to fix aging schools in Oxnard and Port Hueneme and to build a school in Fillmore.

Measure G would raise $7.5 million to construct an elementary school and repair existing campuses in the Fillmore Unified School District. Measure H seeks $6.95 million to modernize the schools in the Hueneme Elementary School District.

Both bonds need a two-thirds majority to pass and make the districts eligible for state matching funds for school construction. Fillmore schools would be eligible for up to $10 million in state money, and Hueneme schools would receive more than $12 million, according to district officials.

Fillmore property owners would pay an average of $44.50 per year for each $100,000 of assessed value, and Hueneme district property owners would pay $19.24 per $100,000.

Several bond supporters are spending their day reminding voters to go to the polls. But traditionally, special elections draw a low turnout, Ventura County elections chief Bruce Bradley said. He expects 20% to 25% of registered voters in the Fillmore and Hueneme districts to cast ballots today.

In March, a similar school bond measure in Fillmore received 63.4% of the vote, just shy of the two-thirds needed to pass. Since then, parents, teachers and community members have been campaigning for the new bond by calling, sending out fliers, setting up tables and making presentations.

“We had to go for it again,” said Fillmore Supt. Mario Contini. “We don’t want to lose the state funding, and we don’t want to lose the property for the new site.”

The new elementary school, which is scheduled to open in 2002 in north Fillmore, would include a public library and a community park. The campus is a key to relieving crowding in the 3,700-student district, Contini said.

Fillmore’s three elementary campuses are beyond capacity, and district officials expect more than 1,000 students to move into the city in the next six years. Without a new school, school officials said, the district may have to abandon class-size reduction or consider year-round schooling.

The bond money would also pay to upgrade electrical wiring and plumbing in other schools.

Voters last approved school bonds in the Fillmore and Hueneme districts in 1997. The Fillmore district received $12 million to build a middle school, and Hueneme received $4.7 million to start renovations on the district’s 11 schools.

Now, Hueneme district officials say they need the additional $6.95 million to finish upgrading bathrooms and classrooms, by replacing floors, windows and plumbing at most of its schools. Officials also plan to expand computer labs and libraries, upgrade electrical wiring, improve safety in the parking lots and continue reducing class sizes.

All of the schools in the 8,400-student district are more than 35 years old, and Hueneme Elementary School is approaching its 75th birthday, said Associate Supt. Jeff Baarstad.

“We don’t want them to get to the point where they are appalling,” he said. “But when you get a school that’s 50 years old, you get to a position when you can’t repair it anymore.”

George Lauterbach, co-chair of the citizens committee that campaigned for the bond, said he tells residents that the extra few dollars each year in taxes would be worth it. The renovations funded by the 1997 bond have made some of the campuses more beautiful--and safer, he said.

“If we can do something that helps the teachers, the schools and the students, how better can you invest your money?” Lauterbach said.

FYI

The polls open at 7 a.m. and close at 8 p.m. today. For information about polling locations, call the county registrar of voters at 654-2664.