San Diego County Elections : Critics Blame School District for Fallbrook’s Latest Bond Failure : Election: They say third refusal in two years to spend to relieve crowding reflects public’s lost confidence.

Fallbrook Unified High School District trustees and administrators say they are frustrated, and teachers are demoralized following the community’s third refusal in two years to approve a bond issue that would ease severe crowding.

But opponents of Proposition N say the measure’s failure rests with the district’s board and its superintendent, who have lost the confidence of many in the community.

The bond measure failed to get the two-thirds support required, receiving 55.1% of the vote.

Although write-in ballots were still being counted today, a spokeswoman for the county registrar of voters said it is unlikely that the outcome will change.

On Wednesday, the president of the board of trustees and the district’s superintendent conceded defeat.

“I’m just really sorry for the kids,” said P. K. Martin, the school board president. “If the people who live in this community aren’t supportive of them, who will be?”

Martin said that, although the school district has identified few other options to ease crowding and improve facilities at the 25-year-old high school, trustees will continue searching.

“We can’t turn our back on the kids,” she said. “We have to keep plugging away. We have to go back out into the community. Obviously, they don’t like bonds. Hopefully, we’ll find a solution.”

When it was built in 1967, Fallbrook High School had a capacity of 1,200 students. With the addition of portable classrooms, the school has increased its capacity to 1,800.

Now, however, 2,300 students are squeezed into the school, and, by the 1999-2000 school year, enrollment is projected to reach 4,100.

Proposition N would have issued $20 million in bonds: $9.3 million would have gone to develop a new site on Gird Road that the district already owns, and $10.7 million to renovate the existing school.

The proposition would have added $8.43 a year for every $100,000 of assessed valuation to a property owner’s tax bill, or $14.83 for the average property owner, school officials said.

Helen Sanford, a Proposition N opponent who lives near the proposed high school site, said she did not think the tax was the overriding issue for most of the voters who turned thumbs down to the measure.

“I don’t think it was the money at all,” Sanford said. “I think the feeling of the community is that they don’t have much confidence in the school board.

“I think that (voters who opposed the measure) want a better long-range plan with more information as to what should be done. . . . All we hear about is the number of kids that are coming.”

David F. Charles, another resident who worked on campaigns to defeat the bond issue, said he resents district officials painting opponents as not being concerned about conditions at the high school.

“They’re dead wrong if they feel the older people of the community are not in support of education,” said Charles, a retired oil company manager. “The problem is the local board has completely given over control of the district to the superintendent. And, until they take back control, they will not have the confidence of the community.”

Charles said the crowding at Fallbrook High is a result of underutilization of the campus and “an example of the incompetency of the management of this district.”

If the district would have proposed a bond issue with detailed proposals to improve only the existing facilities, he added, it probably would have gained the necessary support. Many people also were upset by the inclusion of a performing arts center in the bond proposal, he said.

Tuesday’s defeat marks the third time in two years and the fourth time overall that a bond issue for expanded high school facilities in Fallbrook failed to gain two-thirds of the vote. In June, 1990, the bond issue gathered support from 65% of voters, falling short of the two-thirds by 150 votes. In November of the same year, support dropped to 54%. A previous attempt in 1978 also failed.

Unlike Proposition N, the previous measures sought solely to finance construction of a new school.

The cost of building a new school and renovating and expanding Fallbrook High is estimated at $44 million.

Supt. Robert Thomas said he won’t know what alternatives the district will pursue until he talks with trustees. More portable classrooms will be placed on the campus, and the district will investigate the possibility of grading the Gird Road site and putting the freshman class there in portable classrooms, he said.

Suggestions that the district go to a year-round schedule or double sessions to accommodate the large student body do not appear feasible, Thomas said, because the district probably can’t afford to buy more buses or hire more teachers for additional classes.

“Someday, somewhere, somehow we’re going to need another school,” Thomas said.

The superintendent said the result of Tuesday’s vote sent the morale of students and administrators plummeting.

“The staff’s morale is about as low as I’ve seen it,” he said.

Martin, the school board president, said he thought this election would finally be the one to gain two-thirds approval. For the first time, the board relied on citizens to lobby their neighbors and friends for support.

“We had some very special people who worked on the campaign,” she said. “We had a clean fact sheet. Everything was explained and dissected and analyzed. Everyone in the community was invited to attend.

“I don’t know what more we can do.”