Bond measure aims for new facilities

When the Newport-Mesa Unified School District voted unanimously last

week to approve a $282-million bond measure -- recently christened

Measure F -- some in the community furrowed their brows at the plan

for more site renovations.

The Measure A bond, approved in 2000, allotted $110 million to

clean and upgrade Newport-Mesa’s schools, a construction project that

is still continuing, with completion expected within two years.

Those who helped to conceive Measure A claim that even as the

district laid out that plan, it foresaw a second round in the future.

“I fully expected this to come up,” said Jim Ferryman, a former

school board member who worked on the project in 1999. “When we put

that bond together, we focused on strictly the infrastructure -- very

little cosmetic stuff, very little lab or athletic facilities ...

because the infrastructure was the top priority at that time.”

Measure A sought to repair Newport-Mesa school sites that had

deteriorated over the years. The project covered rewiring, seismic

upgrades and other safety issues but did not attempt to expand the

school facilities.

In the five years since voters passed Measure A, district

officials said they increasingly saw the need to further upgrade

Newport-Mesa’s facilities. After the Citizens’ Oversight Committee --

a 31-member board appointed by the district to mediate Measure A --

submitted a list last January of projects that still needed to be

undertaken, administrators formed a second committee to conceive a

new renovation plan.

The ballot measure for this November grew largely out of three

sources: recommendations by the Facility Advisory Committee, which

met five times this year before submitting a plan to the district;

the district’s strategic plan, adopted last year, which called for

expanded student services; and the failure of Measure A to meet all

of its stated goals, despite receiving more than $60 million in state

matching funds.

“I think the district knew full well that it was going to take

more than what Measure A was going to offer,” said Paul Reed,

Newport-Mesa’s deputy superintendent, who joined the district as

business services director in 2002. “There was so much work done on

Measure A, and so many estimates early on that proved way short of

the mark, that it was fairly obvious.”

Newport-Mesa’s implementation plan for Measure A, finalized in

March 2002, outlined seven priorities for school renovations: health

and safety, handicap-access compliance, structural stability,

infrastructure, educational facilities, athletic facilities and

landscaping. Individual site committees, consisting of parents and

faculty, compiled reports for each school’s needs under the seven

priorities and also listed additional needs -- such as field repair

and parking lot expansion -- not authorized by Measure A.

Ultimately, the district limited elementary schools to the first

four priorities and high schools to the first five. In some cases,

the work was curbed by escalating costs of building materials; in

others, the work proved to be more complicated than crews expected.

According to some observers, achieving every goal in Measure A’s

implementation plan was a longshot from the start.

“They knew there was probably not enough money in a $110 million

bond to get to the bottom of the list,” said Supt. Robert Barbot.

To make up for some of Measure A’s shortfalls, the district used

its own maintenance and operations funds for additional construction.

Mark Buchanan, the former chair of the Citizens’ Oversight Committee

and currently in charge of campaigning for Measure F, said the

district paid out of its own pocket in part as a way to sell the

community on Measure A.

“It isn’t very rewarding to know that there’s new pipes in the

wall, and so the district decided it was necessary to complete those

things that the community could see and touch, like playground

equipment and new paint,” Buchanan said.

He said he doubted that Newport-Mesa would have to pay

supplemental costs during Measure F, since the project was geared to

individual sites.

“There are going to be specific projects across the district that

would only be approved if there was money to do it,” he said. “To

some extent, this whole process is a bit of a chicken and egg thing.”

Reed acknowledged that part of Measure F’s function would be to

cover areas where Measure A came up short. In addition, the project

seeks to create entirely new facilities, including elementary school

science labs, high school theaters and athletic fields.

Another key inspiration for Measure F was Newport-Mesa’s second

five-year strategic plan, which the district adopted last November

after months of input from students, teachers and the community. One

section of the plan, titled “Facilities for the 21st Century,”

outlines plans to update the district’s technology and expand its

campuses and parking lots.

Buchanan said that if the bond measure did not pass in November,

the district would be hard-pressed to make good on its plans from a

year ago.

“They would probably be able to find ways to do some of the

programs in the strategic plan, but they would, for the most part,

become kind of makeshift,” he said. “People would probably look and

say, ‘Why are you doing it that way? Why don’t you do it the right

way?’”

And the district’s response, Buchanan said, would be, “‘There’s no

money to do it the right way. All we have is the makeshift.’”

QUESTION

Do you think Measure A has adequately served your local school?

Call our Readers Hotline at (714) 966-4664 or send e-mail to

[email protected]. f7Please spell your name and tell us your

hometown and phone numbers for verification purposes only.

* MICHAEL MILLER covers education and may be reached at (714)

966-4617 or by e-mail at [email protected].