District to Put $4-Million Bond Measure on Ballot

OXNARD — Buoyed by a survey that indicates solid community support, Ocean View School District trustees agreed to place a $4-million school bond measure before the voters in June.

Board members voted unanimously Wednesday to place a bond measure on the ballot to pay for much-needed improvements in school technology, campus renovations and extra classrooms.

“There’s still a lot of work to be done and long nights, but it’s going to be exciting, real exciting,” said Paul Chatman, a trustee of the five-school district, which covers a mostly rural stretch of Ventura County from Oxnard to the Los Angeles County line.

A telephone survey conducted earlier this month by Price Research, an independent polling company in San Ramon, showed that 72% of registered voters within the district favored spending up to $5 million on a school bond. The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 3%.

The district’s financial consultant has suggested setting the property tax to repay a bond issue at about $25 a year per household. The poll results show that when taxpayers were asked to pay more than that, their support dips below 66.7%--the level of voter approval needed to pass a bond. For example, only 42% of survey respondents said they would support a property tax increase of $49 per year.

“You’ve got a community in favor of education and now it’s up to you to inform them of the schools’ needs,” said Mitch Templeton, a financial advisor with Dale Scott & Co., a bond consulting firm based in San Francisco.

The 2,405-student district joins a growing number of districts in western Ventura County that will be pushing bond issues this spring.

In March, voters will decide whether to approve Oxnard School District’s $57-million bond measure and Fillmore Unified School District’s $12-million measure. Last fall, Oxnard’s high school district won voter support for its own $57-million bond measure, which will pay for a sixth high school and renovation of the other campuses.

And Ventura Unified School District officials have set a Tuesday deadline to decide whether to place a bond measure on the June ballot to help finance part of its $120-million plan to build at least four schools by 2010.

Although people in Ventura County say they believe that the quality of education is below standards statewide, most of them support their schools and want to help improve them, Templeton said.

“They believe it’s a local problem with local solutions,” he said.