Promises needed before we back Measure F bond

When we first heard the news we were, admittedly, taken aback.

And the price tag, frankly, took our breath away.

A little more than five years after getting overwhelming community

support for passage of Measure A, the $110-million bond initiative to

repair local schools, Newport-Mesa Unified School District officials

announced that they are going back to the voters for more,

specifically $282 million more.

That’s nearly three times the cost of the Measure A bond.

Already dubbed Measure F, the new bond would allow the district to

complete the repairs promised in Measure A and begin new construction

on such things as new libraries, science labs, performing arts

centers and long-awaited and much-deserved sports facilities at Costa

Mesa’s high schools.

So the natural questions are these: Are the voters ready to

approve such a big construction and repair bill, and does the

district deserve to collect such a windfall from Newport-Mesa

residents?

We’re not sure we know the answers yet.

Here’s what we do know. In 2000, the district went to great pains

to convince Newport-Mesa residents that in order to repair the aching

and breaking school facilities in the district, they needed big money

to make it happen.

Approve a $110 million bond at this time, they said, and $55

million in matching funds from the state will follow.

We got behind the district and supported the bond as the salve.

“If you have children attending Newport-Mesa schools, you already

know the horror stories,” we wrote in May of 2000 in the first of a

two-part series of editorials advocating the passage of the bond. “At

one elementary school, the plumbing in kindergarten classrooms backs

up on a regular basis.

“At one junior high school, there are physical education classes

throughout the day but no showers.

“At one high school, ceiling tiles drop on ... [students’] heads

in the classroom.”

The district schools, some as old as 70, clearly needed help and

we supported the effort.

Newport-Mesa voters did too. They opened up their wallets and gave

school officials a resounding 72% confidence boost at the polls, and

the repairs got underway.

What we don’t recall at the time, and we’ve searched our database

to see if we missed something, is hearing school officials say this

would just be round one -- that a bigger, pricier school bond would

be needed to make the district as good as new again.

“I think the district knew full well that it was going to take

more than what Measure A was going to offer,” Paul Reed, the

district’s deputy superintendent told one of our reporters this week.

“There was so much work done on Measure A, and so many estimates

early on that proved way short of the mark, that it was fairly

obvious.”

It wasn’t so obvious to us. We believed, as many others did, that

$165 million would do the trick, and school officials said as much in

2000.

So are we ready to get behind this new effort? We need to know

more.

The first thing in the district’s favor is the assertion by school

leaders that the new bond will merely extend the existing tax debt

over 40 years and not raise property taxes beyond the $22.35 per

$100,000 assessed value.

The next would be the tangible results from such a big layout of

cash. The voters deserve to know what they’ll get for their money and

if this will be the last time they’ll be asked to pony up. District

officials should make that pledge.

They should all vow that if the bond passes, Costa Mesa High

School will have an Olympic pool and Estancia High School will have a

football stadium; pass the bond and watch new libraries spring up;

pass the bond and see your kids perform in a new performing arts

center.

We acknowledge that five years can bring a new reality, and we’re

ready to consider the pros and cons of this new bond measure and

whether it deserves the blessing of the community.

We just want to see all the cards on the table this time.