Oceanside Unified School District built two elementary schools five years apart. The schools were exactly the same, with the same contractor and the same construction management firm overseeing work. The first school, Nichols, cost $9.9 million, the second, Foussat, $15 million.
There, in a capsule, is the dilemma facing school districts up and down California. They worked hard to persuade voters to authorize borrowing to rehabilitate crumbling classroom buildings that were new when Truman was in office and build new ones in burgeoning growth areas to spare today's parents long drives. They carefully crafted priority lists and received state design approvals. And then they were steamrolled by the runaway prices of construction materials. The money is running out long before even the core of the to-do list is finished.
In seeking a second round of financing, it is incumbent upon districts to offer voters more precise guidance on what will be accomplished at each school and assurance that a third bond issue will not be necessary.
Oceanside Unified, a K-12 district, serves 20,000 youngsters at 22 schools. Eight years ago voters approved a $125 million bond issue, with the state adding $87 million in matching funds. The district took a focused approach, building three new schools to serve growth areas and replacing a campus declared unsafe for use, and opting to completely rehab six campuses.
Now, Oceanside Unified has three new schools and six, including the 1949-era South Oceanside Elementary, that can reasonably pass for new. The other schools are patiently waiting their turn for modernization.
The June ballot can provide that chance. Proposition H, requiring 55 percent approval for passage, would provide $195 million for school improvements by extending the current property tax rate for bonded borrowing ($58.35 per $100,000 of assessed valuation) for eight years.
All of the Proposition H money would upgrade existing schools. The money would go toward the mundane (replacing trailers), the vital (switching out ancient wiring and deteriorated plumbing, installing security systems and removing asbestos) and the uplifting (new or enhanced performing arts classrooms at Oceanside and El Camino high schools).
Few districts have schools like North Terrace Elementary, which sits on the edge of Camp Pendleton. Principal Betsy Wilcox is in charge of 608 students, both civilian and military dependents. The turnover rate is 65 percent a year as Marine parents leave on their third or more tour of duty in a far-away war.
North Terrace was built in 1955. Its age shows. Electrical overloads regularly blow out the circuits for entire wings at a time. The reception area decor includes exposed electrical conduits. A former bathroom serves as a storage area. Industrial heaters hang from the ceilings of some classrooms. Tall filing cabinets block the windows in others. The kindergarteners' room no longer has curtains.
Yet, for many military dependents, “we are the one thing in their life that is constant,” said Superintendent Larry Perondi. So much so that the district plans to add grades six, seven and eight to North Terrace so that some constantly shuffled elementary students won't have to undergo an arbitrary school change.
Children of military parents should not have to overcome deplorable conditions at school. Neither should children of civilians.
We support Proposition H, Oceanside Unified school bonds.
