Despite strong majority support, many communities throughout California recently failed to pass local school bonds. The bond measures fell short of the two-thirds requirement - 66.7 percent - sometimes by just a few votes. The heartbreaking defeats in a sampling of these districts tell the story of continued hardships California students will face if the minority continues to impose its will on the majority of voters:
Southern Kern Unified School District
A $13.3 million measure to install new classrooms, wire classrooms for computers and make needed repairs to aging schools received a majority vote of 61.8 percent.
"On each of our K-12 campuses, we have several sections of buildings 30 years old or older," says Rosamond Teachers Association President Jim Quellman. "Our schools need rewiring, new ceilings and new infrastructure. Because of the leaky ceilings, our carpeting also needs to be replaced. The plumbing and bathroom facilities in older sections of schools need to be renovated."
Crowding is a problem, says Quellman. "The two elementary schools we have are unable to accommodate the enrollment we have now. The high school is at a point where it can no longer accommodate growth. The bond money would have paid for a new elementary school to be built and would have allowed the high school to take over an adjacent elementary school."
Despite a well-organized campaign, the bond measure failed by 65 votes.
"It's not fair," says Quellman. "Many bond issues in numerous communities receive 58 to 65 percent, but don't pass. However, you see elected officials put into office with less than a majority vote - sometimes in the 20 percent area. Usually the president is elected with 50 to 55 percent of the popular vote. I believe that when 60 percent of a community wants to improve education for its children and can't do it, it's a shame and an injustice."
Wasco Union Elementary School District
Despite receiving 65.6 percent approval from voters, a $3.6 million measure to build more classrooms and upgrade facilities in this Kern County district lost by just a handful of votes.
Money would have been used at four sites in the K-8 district. At one site, money was needed to finish construction that began a number of years ago. Some half-finished rooms have been waiting a decade for completion. A cafeteria/multipurpose room would have been constructed at a kindergarten/first-grade site so students would not have to eat their lunch in portables. Sixth-graders would have been given permanent classrooms to replace portables. At another site, a library was planned.
"We also would have used the money for air conditioning," says Anna Poggi, Wasco Elementary Teachers Association president. "It gets to 110 degrees here at times. Children are at risk; something has to be done."
The heart-wrenching loss makes Poggi both sad and angry. "When 65.6 percent of people say yes, it should be yes. Education is a public responsibility. California should treat its children as well as it treats its prisoners. At least prisons have air conditioning and new facilities. Where are our priorities?"
Kings Canyon Joint Unified School District
Since 1995, Reedley residents have made three attempts to pass local school bond initiatives. The 1995 attempt fell just two votes short of passing. The other two attempts won a clear majority, but not a super-majority.
"We have not built a school since 1962, and our population has just about doubled," says Deborah Weber, president of the Kings Canyon Education Association. "We're to the point now of experiencing a lot of overcrowding. We have four schools on a year-round schedule. Some of our fourth-, fifth- and sixth-grade classrooms have 30 to 35 kids or more. Our high school was built for 1,500, and there are more than 2,000 students. When you have too many kids, you tend to have more discipline problems. At most school sites, there's no central gathering place for students to have assemblies or eat together. Our kids don't have a place to eat. They eat in the classroom at their desks. And there is no money to build an auditorium."
Says Weber, "It's frustrating when you come so close, and your needs are so great, yet you can't move forward."
Antelope Valley Union High School District
A recent attempt to pass Measure E (for education) won almost 63 percent of the vote, but fell short of the two-thirds requirement.
Antelope Valley in Los Angeles County is one of the top three growth areas in the state. Its three aging campuses are in dire need of improvement. One high school was designed for 1,500 and houses 3,500 students. The bond money would have built two comprehensive high schools and a third smaller campus to ease overcrowding; it would have modernized existing facilities.
Athletes at Mark Keppel High School in Alhambra learn to keep their eyes on loose ceiling tiles as well as on the ball.
"We're overwhelmed with growth," says Antelope Valley Teachers Association President Laurie Brown. "There are so many people coming in that we can't keep up with facilities, teachers or programs. We're overwhelmed, and there's no way to slow it down."
The district has added approximately 1,000 new students every year for the past several years and presently has 18,000 students. Portables have taken over school sites, even covering the teacher parking lot at one school.
"We needed the bond money yesterday," says Brown. "Our schools are maxed out and we desperately need to build new schools."
Teachers, parents, civic leaders and administrators worked side by side to pass Measure E. Even students worked the phone banks after school and on weekends.
"What concerns me is that it only takes a simple majority vote to build a sporting arena or a prison," says Brown. "But we have to jump through all these hoops for schools. Maybe if we had better schools, we wouldn't have to build so many prisons. Education can solve a lot of problems."
Folsom Cordova School District
Enrollment in the Folsom Cordova district near Sacramento is expected to increase by 60 percent over the next decade. The $18.1 million bond it attempted to pass would have been used to finish construction of a high school and repair aging elementary and middle schools. Widespread community support turned out 200 volunteers who distributed 30,000 pieces of mail and raised $32,000. But the bond went down to defeat when "only" 65.4 percent of voters approved the measure, falling just 76 votes short.
"It was a heartbreaker. We couldn't believe it," recalls Bette Hickok, president of the Folsom Cordova Education Association. "We had a celebration rally ready with parents, teachers, volunteers, the school board and the administration. We were sure we had done our job. We had 15 to 30 people phone banking every night."
"Folsom is growing by leaps and bounds," says Hickok. "We have two elementary schools built in the early '50s that need renovation and modernization. One of our elementary schools is 49 years old and another is 39 years old. They only have one plug per room, so it's impossible to do anything with computers. Intel, one of the largest computer chipmakers in the world, is just three miles away, and we don't have enough plugs to accommodate computers. It's laughable."
As soon as the school bond measure failed, the community began gearing up for the Let's Fix Our Schools campaign.
"Teachers, parents and school board members immediately began passing around petitions to get Prop. 26 on the March ballot," says Hickok. "Almost instantaneously, we realized that we might have lost the battle, but not the war. The law (requiring two-thirds majority) isn't fair, and it's time to get the law changed."
