Ballot Measure C Seen as Hope for Growing Colleges : Education: The Valley, Pierce and Mission campuses would each receive at least $20 million for repairs and new classrooms if the bond issue passes.

At Valley College in Van Nuys, instructors who teach in the aging, unair-conditioned bungalows scattered throughout the campus frequently have to dismiss classes during the hot, sticky fall months.

Across the San Fernando Valley, at Pierce College in Woodland Hills, the bookstore is so small that students have to make appointments to shop for books and other classroom supplies.

And at Mission College, some students will not be able to attend classes at the school’s new Sylmar campus, which opens in September. The Sylmar site was supposed to replace the rented storefronts and buildings that have been the college’s temporary home for 16 years. But the fast-growing enrollment has exceeded the campus’ capacity even before it opens, forcing administrators to schedule classes once more in rented office space.

Proposition C, which asks voters to approve a $200-million bond issue for capital improvements in the Los Angeles Community College District, would solve these problems and more, district and college administrators say.

The measure on the April 9 ballot needs approval of two-thirds of the voters to pass. Four seats on the district’s seven-member Board of Trustees will also be decided that day.

If the measure passes, each of the district’s nine campuses, including Mission, Pierce and Valley, will receive a minimum of $20 million. Another $20 million will be placed in a separate fund and allocated to the colleges on an emergency basis.

The bond issue would add an average of $2.35 annually to property tax bills for the next 30 years, a price tag district Trustee Wallace Knox likens to “the cost of a hamburger a year.”

“Proposition C will deliver to the San Fernando Valley community colleges in one fell swoop the greatest rejuvenation in decades,” he said.

“It won’t solve all the problems,” Knox said. “But it will allow each college to address its core issues and deliver high-tech classes in a safe, comfortable environment.”

Besides replacing or renovating old buildings, Knox said, the funds would be used to update classrooms so that they can accommodate modern, high-tech teaching equipment.

The three Valley colleges, with a combined enrollment of about 42,500, have more than a third of the district’s 112,000 students. Valley, with 18,500 students, is the district’s largest campus, followed by Pierce with about 18,000. Enrollment at Mission, which planned its new campus for 3,500 students, has spiraled to 6,000.

Growth and state funding cutbacks have prompted Valley and Pierce to freeze improvement and expansion plans and to defer the maintenance of decaying buildings, many of them between 30 and 60 years old. Both schools have cut classes to save money, and Mission has halted building plans at its new campus.

The needs of the three Valley community college campuses vary. Valley College President Mary Lee said air conditioning for classrooms and improved night lighting top her list.

“When it gets to be 110 in the Valley, we’ve had floors buckle from the heat,” Lee said. “There’s no way we can hold classes under those conditions, so they have to be dismissed.”

Other projects on her list are a cultural arts complex, refurbishing the college library and a health sciences classroom building, which would replace some of the bungalows. The arts complex has been on the drawing board since before Lee became college president 10 years ago.

Lee said an open house will be held from noon to 3 p.m. Sunday at the college’s Historical Museum to acquaint the public with the college’s history and to explain Proposition C and why college officials believe that it is needed.

At Pierce, President Dan Means said his first priority is replacing several old bungalows, some of them beyond repair, with a 45,000-square-foot classroom building that would include a large computer lab.

“Many students use computers for their classes, but now they’re scattered all over,” Means said. “This would be a centrally located place like a library where students can come and study.”

Then Pierce administrators want to build a new student center to house a new and larger bookstore and other student services, including counseling, admissions and testing, Means said. Pierce also needs an allied health building for teaching nursing and other health-related career skills and to renovate parking lots marred with potholes, he added.

“Then we’d look at lighting,” he said. “It’s not so good at night. All our problems are thefts out of cars. We haven’t had a rape or a murder or any of those drastic crimes. But we have our share of thefts, and we don’t want even that.”

At Mission, acting President Jack Fujimoto said he wants to build more classrooms, a learning resources-library building and a child-care center. “I think we have to accommodate the students,” he said. “We owe it to them to have a child-care center.”

Mission also needs more land, parking lots, a vocational education building and classrooms for social studies, humanities, fine arts and physical education. But Fujimoto said the $20 million will not cover all the costs of completing the campus.

“It’ll probably get us halfway through,” he said.

Mission is on a priority list for state funding, but Fujimoto said it may be many years before the college receives any money.