GLENDALE : School Board Won’t Put Bond on Ballot

Glendale Unified School District officials have decided against putting a multimillion-dollar school bond proposal before voters in 1995 in the wake of the recent defeat of a similar measure in Burbank.

Citing the continuing recession and subsequent anti-tax sentiment among voters, board of education members said they favored putting on hold a bond issue that would be used to make improvements to many of the district’s aging buildings.

“We can see from the world around us and from communication with board members in other communities that a bond is not timely right now,” board President Jane Whitaker said.

A bond is needed to computerize Glendale schools, district spokesman Vic Pallos said.

A majority of Glendale’s 28 schools were built in the 1920s and haven’t been retrofitted to meet today’s basic electrical needs. Some classrooms have only one electrical outlet, Pallos said.

A $100-million school bond initiative in Burbank--intended to provide money to renovate buildings in the Burbank Unified School District--was rejected by voters April 12.

About 53% of Burbank voters approved the measure, while 47% were opposed. The election required a two-thirds majority, or 66.7% of voters favoring the bond issue, to pass.

Glendale school district officials are hopeful that bills lowering the percentage of votes needed to pass a bond measure will be approved, allowing the district to proceed. The bills are now in the state Legislature.

It would be easier to pass a bond measure in trying economic times if the district were only required to obtain a 50% majority vote on an initiative, board member Blanch Greenwood said.

A school bond proposal last appeared before Glendale voters in 1964, when 67% of the electorate approved a $20-million measure to rebuild Glendale and Hoover high schools and to build Mountain Avenue Elementary School.