College district will seek bond

Deirdre Newman

The Coast Community College District on Wednesday unanimously

approved placing a $370-million bond on the November ballot after a

resounding show of support from various community members.

It will now be up to voters to decide whether they want to pay

about $16.76 more per $100,000 assessed home valuation to fund a host

of facility improvements at the three district campuses.

Twenty-three speakers representing business, academia and the

general community waxed poetic about the benefits the bond could

bring to the individual colleges, the district and the community at

large.

The board “has a sacred obligation to young people to give them

marketable skills and help them get to higher education,” said Sidney

Stokes, an alumni of the district.

By placing the bond on the ballot, district officials hope to take

advantage of a proposition passed in 2000 that requires 55% of the

vote for bonds used for school-related facility improvements. The

proposition also requires that a citizens oversight committee be

established and that no funds from the bonds be spent on

administrator salaries.

The bond would fund repairs, technology upgrades and safety

improvements such as a new learning resource center and library to

replace the vacant, seismically unsafe facility at Orange Coast

College. The financial breakdown includes $200 million for upgrades

at Orange Coast College; $96 million for Golden West College; $66.2

million for Coastline Community College; and $8.6 million for other

improvements, such as replacing temporary district buildings with

permanent structures.

This is the first time in more than three decades the district is

considering a bond to fund needed improvements at all three colleges.

The trustees echoed the community’s sentiment that approving the bond

is imperative for the future.

“What we’re doing is going to be for the people who aren’t even

born yet,” trustee Paul Berger said. “Because this is our chance to

make sure 25 years from now that we still have a viable community

college district.”

The idea was first floated in March, when the district sent out a

preliminary survey to explore voter interest.

While the original bond amount was $344 million, the district says

it now requires $370 million to fully cover its bases, said Erin

Cohn, the district’s spokeswoman. The total funding need is actually

$470 million, but the district has identified $100 million from other

funding sources over the next 10 to 15 years that would not have to

be included in the bond, Cohn noted.

Over the past few months, district staffers and consultants have

been busy crunching numbers and making contact with community members

to further gauge their level of support. Although the exact amount of

the potential bond was not disclosed to the community, the response

has been favorable, Cohn said.

In November, the bond will compete for attention with a massive

statewide bond of $13 billion for facility improvements for campuses

from the elementary to community college levels. But the district is

eligible for only a little more than $1 million of the November

statewide bond and another $12-billion bond that will be on the March

2004 ballot.

* DEIRDRE NEWMAN covers education. She may be reached at (949)

574-4221 or by e-mail at deirdre.newman@latimes.com.