Passing grade for school bond

Danette Goulet

NEWPORT-MESA -- The $110-million school bond measure passed

overwhelmingly Tuesday with nearly 72% of the vote, ensuring much-needed

repairs for the district’s crumbling schools.

The news thrilled hundreds of bond supporters who celebrated the

landslide victory into the night.

“We did it!” screamed school board member Judy Franco from the party at

Avila’s El Ranchito in Costa Mesa. “This community supports public

education and the students who attend those schools.”

“I’m thrilled,” said Jill Money, Harbor Council PTA president. “We

couldn’t have done it without a lot of hard work from dedicated

volunteers.”

About 20% of registered voters in Newport Beach and Costa Mesa turned out

for the special election Tuesday and easily approved the measure, with

just 28.1% voting no. A two-thirds majority, or 66.6%, was needed to win.

For the hundreds of campaign volunteers who made countless phone calls

and tirelessly walked neighborhoods, it was time to breathe a collective

sigh of relief as they ended their formidable task of seeing the school

bond pass.

“This was not an all-weather track -- we weren’t going to around again,”

said campaign volunteer and Newport Beach businessman Rush Hill. “I had

some doubts about a week out, but the get-out-the-vote effort really put

it over the top.”

The bond’s passage was also a great relief to district officials, who

admitted this week they would have needed a “miracle” to fix their

facilities problems without it.

“It’s such an important thing we did for our community,” said Mark

Schultheis, co-chairman of Citizens to Rebuild Our Schools. “It brought

our community together in a spirit of cooperation that will last a long

time.”

For Newport-Mesa’s 29 aging schools, Tuesday night’s victory is just the

beginning of a very long road to recovery.

The first task at hand is to assemble an oversight committee, which will

require sorting through several hundred applications received by the

district. That will take a month to six weeks to complete, said Mike

Fine, assistant superintendent in charge of finances.

That committee will be responsible for carrying out the mandates of the

facilities master plan, which was released in January.

Outlined in that document are the specific repairs to be made at each

campus, from seismic retrofitting to replacing ceiling tiles.

The daunting report was presented to the school board, which voted in

February to put the problem before voters in a special June election.

With the $110 million on its way, all that’s needed now is the remaining

$53 million that the district hopes to gain from the state in matching

funds.

Those state dollars would come from a $9.2-billion school bond approved

by voters in the November 1998 general election. But the money won’t be

there forever and will be distributed on a first-come, first-served

basis.

In fact, the bulk of the funds from that pot already have been doled out,

Fine said. Newport-Mesa’s money may need to come from another statewide

proposition, which has yet to be proposed.

The district has sent 29 applications to the state to ensure the schools

are eligible for the money. Once those applications are returned and

plans are drawn up and approved by the state for each campus, the

district will be able to actually apply for the funds.

Once assembled, the oversight committee will be expected to aid the

district in planning a course of action, Fine said.

Those who supported the bond said they are looking ahead to the future.

“It’s really a new era for this district,” said campaign volunteer Kurt

Yeager. “Two cities -- six to eight communities -- said ‘let’s fix our

schools.’ This community hasn’t stood up for itself like this any time in

the past 30 years and should be proud of itself.”