Districts interpret Prop. 26 failure differently

Jennifer K Mahal

The close vote on Proposition 26 will not keep the Huntington Beach Union

High School District from trying to float a bond measure in the future,

but it might affect the decision of the Huntington Beach City School

District, officials said.

Proposition 26, which received 48.8% of the votes counted statewide

Wednesday morning, would have changed the threshold for passing school

improvement bonds from a two-thirds margin to a simple majority. It was a

tight race for the measure, which was losing by only 154,325 votes before

the late absentee ballot count.

“The issue has never been if we go back, but when,” said Susan Roper,

superintendent for the high school district.

Her district tried to get voters to approve a $123-million bond measure

in November. It failed, garnering just 61% of the vote.

It’s very challenging to get a two-thirds majority, Roper said.

She said the failure of Proposition 26 does not affect what the district

will do.

“I hope the residents are simply saying they would like to retain the

two-thirds vote,” she said, adding that the measure passed in Fountain

Valley.

Huntington Beach High School District trustee Matthew Harper did not

support Proposition 26, but he said if the board considers placing

another bond measure on the ballot, it should try to do so during a

normal election. November’s vote was held during a special election, a

few days after the regular election.The Huntington Beach City School

District is testing the waters with a survey before making any decisions

about floating a bond, Supt. Duane Dishno said. His district needs

between $35 million and $40 million to repair its structures.

“It seems to me two-thirds is an extremely high hurdle,” Dishno said. “I

can’t think of any politician who needs to get two-thirds of the vote to

win.”

Dishno said the failure of Proposition 26 might factor in when the

district looks at the possibility of a bond measure.

“But I don’t know that it will be a deciding factor,” he said.

City school district trustee Brian Garland said the failure of

Proposition 26 makes the idea of a bond election less attractive.

“It makes the hill much steeper to climb,” he said. “Would we still try

for one? Maybe.”

The issue of whether to place a measure on the ballot is waiting until a

survey is conducted by Price Research, Dishno said. The survey, approved

by the district’s school board last year, will begin in the next few

weeks.

One of the reasons for the survey is to find out if people will support a

bond versus selling off a closed school site, Dishno said. The district

has a number of properties it is no longer using, including Burke and

Gisler schools.The district is hoping to come up with $3.7 million in

matching funds to enable it to get $15 million in state money.

“Our buildings look pretty good,” Dishno said, “but we do have

30-year-old plumbing and 30-year-old electrical systems.”

The buildings also need roof repair, painting and heating, and

ventilation system upgrades, he said.

The problems faced by the Huntington Beach High School District are

similar.

Roper said her district needs $160 million to fix building foundations,

replace leaking roofs and upgrade outdated science laboratories and

libraries. The district also needs to update all but one of its high

schools’ electrical systems to prepare them for upcoming technology

upgrades.

“It takes a tremendous amount of electricity [to run computers],” Roper

said.