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Published on 04/13/1998 All articles from this issue

Local schools facilities bond measures pass handily

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By Linda Taaffe / Town Crier Staff Writer

School bond measures passed with an overwhelming majority in both the Mountain View and Fremont Union High school districts at special elections April 14. A two-thirds majority vote was needed to pass the bonds.

Voters in the Mountain View School District approved Measure D, a $36 million bond, with an 82.1 percent majority, or 3,317 votes, said a spokeswoman from the Registrar of Voters in Santa Clara County. The bond will cost homeowners $30 per $100,000 assessed property value over the next 25 years.

In an election where "a super majority was needed and every vote counted," said Patricia Bubenik, superintendent of the Mountain View School District. She and other volunteers ran between polling places, checking names of those who had not voted and telephoning them, sometimes several times, until they voted.

"It worked," said Bubenik about the district's campaigning efforts. "We had been convinced the community would care about its schools for the future, but I am just thrilled with the 82 percent majority. It's incredibly difficult in this era to even get the 67.7 percent majority needed to pass a bond. To exceed that by such a huge percent, is tremendously gratifying."

The district will use the bond revenues to upgrade its four elementary schools and one middle school, which have not been renovated since they were built between 38 and 49 years ago.

Bubenik said the district will fix boilers, upgrade electrical equipment and make the schools "respectful" for children.

"We are going to take the classrooms into the technology age," Bubenik said. She said school classrooms currently only have two electrical plugs - "one in the front for a record player, one in the back for a projector."

The funds will also be used to reopen Huff School, which will add 13 new classrooms to the district and relieve some of the overcrowding caused by the class size reduction program that limits 20 students per classroom.

At the Fremont Union High School District, a 78.8 percent majority, or 15,379 voters approved Measure H, a $144 million bond that will cost homeowners $25 per $100,000 assessed property value over the next 25 years.

Gene Longinetti, coordinator of property management at the district, said "we took a major chance" going out for a bond. He said the bond amount was high, the district has a large number of voters with grown children, and high school bonds don't always generate strong support. Even so, Longinetti said he expected the bond to pass.

"I'm happy for the community, the students and the generations of young people to come. But I'm not surprised (the measure passed) because I believe the community realized the urgency of the issue and responded," Longinetti said. He attributes much of the campaign's success to the high amount of student involvement - an innovative tactic top professional campaign managers are now examining, he said.

The district plans to use the bond revenues to upgrade facilities at its five high schools, including Homestead High, where approximately 100 Los Altos students are enrolled.

He said the district plans to spend about $119 million during the first eight years of the bond for building upgrades such as seismic retrofitting and repairing or replacing deteriorating electrical, heating and plumbing. The district will also add 55 new classrooms among the sites. The remaining $25 million will be used toward ongoing facility maintenance during the following 17 years, he said.

Longinetti said the facilities at all school sites are "seriously deteriorating," because the school sites have not been renovated since they were built between 40 and 70 years ago.

"This will provide the district an opportunity to bring back its schools to a nearly new condition, as far as the infrastructure," he said.