Holding out for a bond

Andrew Wainer

HUNTINGTON BEACH -- It reads like a Hollywood end-of-the-world movie

plot: ceilings falling in; buildings sinking into the ground; rotting,

termite-infested walls.

But this is not a film script.

These architectural maladies are only a few of the dozens of repairs

plaguing the Huntington Beach Union High School District. Officials said

their only hope is the passage of a $123-million school bond that will

come before voters on Tuesday.

The problems

District officials also cite worn-out electrical systems, leaky plumbing

and cracked floors among the myriad of infrastructure problems it hopes

to solve with the repair bond, which would be linked with $37 million in

matching funds from the state.

The sorry state of the district’s schools is due to several factors,

officials have said.

“A lot of what we are dealing with could not be predicted,” Assistant

Supt. Patricia Koch said. “Some of the high schools were originally built

over unstable peat bogs, and they have been gradually sinking over the

years.”

Other problems are due to less dramatic causes.

“Some things are just old and worn out,” Koch said. “The electrical

systems were built for another era, when we didn’t use computers, and the

main power transformers are inadequate for our present-day needs.”

Other changes involve safety issues such as installing better lighting at

the schools so that they are more accessible at night. The schools were

not built with this in mind.

Five of the six schools that need major repairs are more than 30 years

old. The district has had little in the way of financial resources to

keep them in good condition.

How it happened

“The convergence of declining enrollment, an economic recession, and

financial power transferred to Sacramento has meant that since the 1980s,

our budget has declined drastically,” Koch said.

She estimates that the district’s budget declined by $30 million over

just a few years, starting in the early 1980s. During this time,

California also went from fifth in the nation in education spending to

37th.

Although state education spending has slowly increased in the last few

years, the long financial drought forced the district to focus its budget

on instruction, leaving the district unable to enact the major repairs

the schools needed.

“Our priority was attending to the most urgent health and safety issues,”

Koch said, adding that the 2% the district annually allocates to

maintenance was not enough to stem the tide of disrepair.

Although the schools have on-site maintenance personnel, they were only

able to deal with day-to-day projects and some preventive work.

“Occasionally we had money to replace a leaky roof or repair a floor, but

most of the time we were just trying to keep old equipment running,” Koch

said.

The cure

In June, after years of research, the district’s board of trustees voted

to hold a special repair and modernization bond election to solve the

drastic infrastructure dilemma.

The district built a broad alliance of powerful community members to

support the campaign for the bond election.

Defying the city’s traditionally conservative anti-tax stance, district

officials managed to include Republican Assemblyman Scott Baugh and

Waterfront Hilton chief executive officer Steve Bone in the campaign,

giving it additional clout.

The issue has been presented on the city’s public cable access TV

channel, in flyers, and even at the schools themselves.

And most signs indicate the effort has been successful.

A September poll shows 65% of those questioned would “definitely or

probably” vote to pass the bond. A two-thirds majority is needed to pass

the bond, but Supt. Susan Roper said she thinks the bond now has more

support than it needs to pass on Nov. 9. The annual cost of the bond to

property owners would be about $27 per $100,000 of the assessed value of

their property.

Showing the district’s determination to pass the bond, plans for

construction and repairs have already been commissioned by the district.

If the bond passes, Koch said work could start as early as this spring.

“We will take a multifaceted approach,” Koch said. “We plan to go in and

take whole buildings out of service so that a building can be totally

modernized and repaired at once.”

Koch said the district wants to avoid continually returning to a building

for minor repairs, which would not be time effective.

Temporary classrooms would be brought to the campus while regular

classrooms are undergoing repair, Koch said.

The major repairs would be done chronologically, starting with the

district’s oldest schools -- Huntington Beach and Westminster high

schools.

Koch said the architectural plans for the major construction needed for

the two schools are ready to go.

In order to produce immediate results, minor repairs will begin at all

schools if and when the bond money is available. Koch said such works

would include upgrading electrical transformers, concrete resurfacing and

painting. Koch said this type of work would show the public an immediate

payoff from the bond money.

She said it could be three to five years before all the repairs in the

district are completed.

The district plans to start slow to avoid mistakes and speed the

modernization work, Koch said.

“We would be going from a district that has had no building projects in

recent years to one that would have all of its buildings being worked

on,” she said.

Plan B

Although district officials appear confident about the Nov. 9 vote, they

do have a contingency plan in the event the bond is rejected.

If if it doesn’t pass, the district plans to proceed with the state

modernization program, which could give them $46 million for repairs. The

state offers a program in which Sacramento gives the district a sum of

repair money based on its school capacity, number of campuses, and how

old the buildings are.

The state pays the district $4 for every dollar the district provides

toward the sum. In this case, the district would put up $9 million, and

the state would add $37 million, totaling $46 million for repairs.

The district has stressed that this sum would not be anywhere near enough

to modernize schools to an acceptable level.

Handicap accessibility, restrooms, roofs and sinking buildings would be

some of the priority repairs in this scenario.

Although Koch said the money the state offers in matching funds is

appreciated and needed, it is not nearly enough.

The critics

While the district believes $46 million would not be sufficient to repair

schools, critics of the bond election said the district’s repair needs

are invented and could be covered under its current budget.

William Fitzgerald, a member of the Newman Terrace Homeowners Assn., said

he’s concerned the bond money would be used to pad administrative

salaries.

“At most, the district needs $10 [million] to $20 million to do the

repairs,” Fitzgerald said. “Everything else is extra. They are

threatening school parents into supporting this huge tax increase through

false claims of unsafe school buildings.”

But organized opposition to the bond election has been weak, and even

opponents have admitted that they expect it to pass.

Part of the success of the bond campaign has been its media blitz, which

opponents charge has has passed the limit of legality.

District officials are only allowed to present information on the bond

and explain what the money would be used for. They are not allowed to

openly advocate any position while on the district’s time clock. They

may, however, advocate for the bond on their own time.

Bond opponents have claimed district officials have used taxpayer money

and district time to campaign for a yes vote, a violation of state law.

District officials roundly refute those claims.

As for bond spending, district officials said stringent oversight will

accompany the distribution of funds, blocking any use not explicitly

illustrated and agreed upon by community members.

The oversight

If the bond passes, an independent oversight committee would oversee the

school repairs. The 17-member committee would include a cross-section of

the community, with representatives from a number of organizations, and

will have the same access to information as district staff members. Only

three of the 17 committee members would be appointed by the district. The

rest would be chosen by the community.

District officials also said there are legal safeguards that require the

bond money be spent on capital improvements, not on salary increases.

A report on how the money is spent will be done annually through an

independent audit.

The district also would set aside 6% of its annual budget if the bond

passes to create a repair and replacement reserve, so money will be

available for future repairs.

The idea behind this, district officials said, is to make this election a

one-shot deal, so the district will not have to ask voters again for more

modernization money.

With the assortment of financial safeguards included in the bond package,

supporters call opponents’ charges of waste unfounded.

They also deny they have violated the law through their media campaign.

They say their advocacy of the bond is done outside their jobs and is

therefore legal.

Although bond opponents have threatened to press charges against the

district for violating these laws, no action has been taken.

The students

While adults will continue to debate the merits of the bond until the

actual vote, and probably after, it’s the community’s youth who have the

most to gain or lose.

“There are ants in a few of my classrooms, and sometimes they crawl over

my desk,” Fountain Valley High School senior Cassandra Stewart said.

She also said a host of termites sometimes sit in on her classes.

Adam Miller, a senior at Marina High School, had even more harrowing

tales to tell.

“I am constantly changing classrooms because they get flooded by the

leaky ceilings. I missed school because the swimming pool and shower

heaters are broken,” said the water polo player.

Overflowing toilets is one problem Marina High School battles on a daily

basis, Miller added.

“If they don’t begin to fix these schools now,” Miller said, “someone’s

going to get hurt.”

SIDEBAR

Locals opinions on bond vary

Some love it. Some hate it. Many have never even heard of it.

Although the Nov. 9, $123-million Huntington Beach Union High School

District bond election has been publicized in a variety of media over the

past few months, many locals not immediately linked to the education

system seem oblivious to the issue.

While students and their parents in the district have certainly been

informed of the repair bond in recent months, many older residents and

young adults interviewed on Main Street in Downtown Huntington Beach

seemed to be unaware of the election.

Though many shrugged and offered puzzled looks when questioned about the

issue, some locals expressed strong opinions.

“I’ll vote for the bond because the schools in this town are a tragedy,”

said real estate agent Phil Benson.

Even though Benson’s children have already made their way through the

Huntington Beach school system, he stressed that repairing the schools

would be to the whole community’s benefit.

Jeanne Kimura, who works on Main Street, agreed.

“Huntington Beach High School is especially beautiful, and it would be a

shame if it was not repaired,” Kimura said.

Neda Gane, 24, doesn’t have children and said she would support

alternative methods of raising money.

“I think the schools could raise funds by other means that would be

easier on taxpayers,” Gane said.

Others also expressed hesitancy about supporting a bond, saying the

district should make better use of its budget instead of asking the

taxpayers for assistance.

-- Andrew Wainer