Phone surveys on school bond support to begin next month

Andrew Wainer

HUNTINGTON BEACH -- The defeat of school-friendly Proposition 26 on March

7 has left two Huntington Beach school districts trying to figure out how

to coax two-thirds of the voters into supporting a bond to pay for

repairs at tattered campuses.

“We are extremely disappointed that it did not pass,” said Jerry

Buchanan, Huntington Beach City School District’s assistant

superintendent.

The state measure would have lowered the voting threshold for school

repair bonds to a simple majority.

The defeat of the proposition means both the Huntington Beach City School

District and the Huntington Beach Union High School District will have to

convince two-thirds of area voters to win any future bond election.

Regardless of the setback, Buchanan said the city school district is

moving ahead with a telephone survey of registered voters to test how the

community might support a future election.

“We expect the results of the survey in about two weeks,” Buchanan said.

“That will determine the direction that we will go.”

The district has hired Price Research to lead the survey, which will

perform 15-minute phone interviews with 400 registered voters within the

district boundaries.

“The survey results will have to be in the vicinity of two-thirds if we

are to consider a bond,” Buchanan said.

When the board of trustees receives the results of the survey, it will

have all the pieces of information needed to make a decision on how to

improve its facilities.

The district recently received a report by a special facilities

commission examining how to deal with the district’s three closed school

sites. Supt. Duane Dishno said thediscussion of facility issues will

begin in April.

The board of trustees has considered selling an unused school site,

putting a bond up for election and taking out a loan to come up with $4

million in matching funds to repair its schools.

The district is eligible for about $19 million in state funds to repair

its schools. But it must come up with $4 million of its own to receive

the state funds.

Buchanan said the district will have until July or August to make a

decision because the state Office of Public School Construction will

start disbursing the repair funds to districts this summer. Many expect

the money to disappear fast.

“The money could be all gone by December,” Buchanan said.

If the results of the survey are positive, the district could launch a

bond campaign as soon as September.

Meanwhile, the Huntington Beach Union High School District, which lost

its own $123-million bond campaign in November, is completing

applications for $59 million in state hardship funds. If a district loses

a bond election, it becomes eligible for the state funding program.

Supt. Susan Roper has said the district needs $160 million to repair its

campuses, some of which are more than 30 years old.

With the defeat of Proposition 26, any immediate plans for a new election

were scuttled. But with so much need in the district, Roper said it is

only a question of time until the district seeks another bond.