School Bond Likely in November

By Ann K. Williams
Staff Writer

June 29 – Bolstered by the results of a poll, a who’s who of Santa Monica and Malibu school supporters Wednesday urged the School Board to place a $400 million bond on the November ballot.

The go-ahead from the Bond Feasibility Committee paves the way for board to vote next month on whether or not to proceed with the bond as an August 11 deadline looms ever closer. That’s when the District must submit its proposal to the County Registrar of Voters to place the measure on the already-crowded ballot.

“There are more things on the ballot every day,” said pollster Richard Bernard of Fairbank, Maslin, Maullen and Associations. “A lot of people will feel very inundated as we get into the fall.

“We’ve never seen the magnitude of infrastructure bonds on the ballot that we will see in November,” Bernard said. “There are no guarantees.”

Harry Keiley, president of the local chapter of the California Teachers Union, agreed.

“The political dance in the fall is going to be very, very delicate,” Keiley said. The candidates for governor “are both going to be singing kumbaya for this megabond,” he said.

Still, Bernard and the committee were optimistic about poll numbers that seemed to indicate more than 60 percent of Santa Monica-Malibu voters would pass a school bond if the election were held today.

“This is not a slam dunk,” Bernard said. “It will take a lot of work, but it’s a very good place to start.”

“I don’t think there’s going to be a better time to work on this,” agreed Rebecca Kennerly of the Community for Excellent Public Schools (CEPS).

The bond measure was seen as a natural outgrowth of the District’s Facilities Master Planning process that’s been underway for nearly a year.

“We’ve generated a huge amount of excitement about possibilities,” pointed out Allison Kendall, one of the consultants the District has hired for the ambitious plans.

The board has earmarked nearly $1 million to pay for the team of consultants who have organized a series of community meetings designed to inspire input and enthusiasm from local residents for the District’s plans.

Community members were urged to “think big” at the meetings as they came up with creative ideas that ranged from using the schools as community centers to building partnerships with local businesses and government agencies.

So some members of the bond committee were somewhat taken aback Wednesday by the narrow scope of the pilot bond Bernard used as a model.

Asbestos and mold removal, earthquake retrofitting, leaky roofs and fire safety equipment topped the list of improvements that 500 local voters told pollsters they would support.

“It’s a very boring list,” said Chris Harding, an attorney who sits on the bond committee. “Not one of (the items), not a single one, is related to something that is expansive or visionary.

“If you tell them you’re going to be doing asbestos and roofs and you just spend 20 percent of your money on it, you’re going to have a credibility problem with the voters,” Harding later added.

The committee’s co-chair, Gleam Davis, emphasized that the purpose of the meeting was just to give a go-ahead to the board, not draw up final language.

Still, the consensus among the committee members seemed consistent with Harding’s “both/and” vision, in which the bond language would include health and safety improvements popular with the voters, as well as more visionary proposals.

The board -- which will take up the recommendation at a special meeting July 13 -- will have to approve the bond two weeks before August 11, according to district Chief Financial Officer Winston Braham.

Braham has kept the idea of the bond alive through recent turbulent months that have seen large-scale changes in top management, starting with the resignation of Superintendent Dr. John E. Deasy three months ago.

“We owe a debt of gratitude to Winston Braham,” Harding said. “He took a real risk.”

At Wednesday’s meeting, Braham handed out a list of bond and parcel tax figures from this June’s primary which showed that only one in nine measures requiring a two-thirds majority passed, while well over half the bond issues requiring over 55 percent of the vote passed.

This bond will be a “55 plus one” measure, and, if it passes, the District will be able to apply for matching funds from the state under the provisions of Proposition 39.

If voters pass a 20-year, $400 million bond, property owners may see an $32.02 hike per $100,000 assessed value on their property tax bills.