SANTA ANA : School District May Hold Bond Election

The Santa Ana Unified School District may be looking to local residents to help raise $149 million needed to build more schools.

A committee of school officials and community leaders recommended this week that the district’s Board of Education consider holding a local bond election to help pay for school construction.

If approved by two-thirds of the voters, a local bond would result in a new levy on property owners within district boundaries. Proceeds from the bond would finance much-needed new schools.

If the board decides to proceed with a bond election, it could be held as early as spring of 1992, said Mike Vail, senior director for district facilities.

With a current enrollment of 46,000 students, the district is expected to gain 13,000 more students during the next eight years. The district must build the equivalent of eight new elementary schools, two intermediate schools and one high school by September, 1998, to ease potentially massive overcrowding.

So far, only three of the 11 needed schools have received funding from the state’s school building program.

“The state is literally billions of dollars behind in meeting the current need for school construction,” Vail said. “There’s also a chance that state funding could end. We need to plan ahead and be proactive so we will have some sort of funding available.”

The committee also suggested that the district consider placing more of its elementary schools on a year-round schedule and explore the possibility of implementing such a schedule at intermediate schools.

Fourteen of the district’s 26 elementary schools are now on a year-round schedule, but all intermediate and high schools remain on the traditional nine-month calendar.

The 22-member committee, which included three school board members, district administrators, city officials, school principals, district employee representatives and parents, came up with the recommendations after holding six meetings during a two-month period.