County’s Turnout Hits 20-Year High

Huntington Beach couldn’t do it. Irvine couldn’t do it. But the tiny Magnolia School District passed a $9.7-million school bond measure Tuesday by a stunning margin of nearly 3-1.

This is a school system that faces many challenges. Many students from the West Anaheim motels with high transiency rates attend Magnolia campuses; one motel’s residents have been told by the city they must move. Seven of the district’s nine schools rank among the bottom half statewide, according to recent California Department of Education figures. A majority of its students are not fluent in English.

Magnolia found a wide spectrum of support for the measure.

“I don’t feel like just because your own kids are grown up you should say that you’ve done your part and now you’re not going to give any more money,” said Judith Blanchard of Stanton, whose two daughters are grown.

Perhaps as amazing as the size of victory margin--which was 7% higher than the two-thirds needed for passage--was the district’s campaign for the bond, which broke many conventional rules for such elections. There were neither parent advisory groups drumming up votes, nor were there education alliances with business and labor, a ploy Santa Ana Unified used in its successful school-bond vote.

Instead, said schools Supt. Paul Mercier, the district kept its message to voters low-key and simple, asking only for as much money as it needed to fix the specific problems at decrepit campuses.

“I was aware of the bond, but I think the school district purposefully wanted to low-key this thing and sell it to their own constituents,” said Steve Snyder, executive director of the Anaheim Chamber of Commerce. “They did not want a lot of involvement from groups and organizations, and obviously it worked.”

As low-key as the election might have been, Magnolia educators Wednesday were openly basking in the glow of victory.

“The sun is shining today in the Magnolia School District,” said Mercier, who heads the district of fewer than 7,000 students straddling the West Anaheim area and Stanton.

The bond, which will help pay to replace underground gas, water and sewer pipes, install wiring for Internet access and other maintenance projects, won in every precinct.

Its passage will allow the district access to an additional $10 million in state matching funds, and will cost homeowners $25.27 per year per $100,000 of property value.

John Armstrong, a plumber whose two children attend Magnolia schools, said he needed little persuasion to support the bond.

“I think there are a lot of young people with children in the area, and our schools are in poor shape. We need to retrofit them,” Armstrong said.

Support for the schools is obvious among longtime residents and recent immigrants, he said. “When I would go to parents meetings at Lord Baden-Powell Elementary school, even the parents that barely speak English would show up and there would be standing room only. Education is important to all of us here.”

At Dr. Jonas E. Salk Elementary School in Anaheim, Joanne Noyes said she did not mind the property tax increase that comes with the bond measure.

“Anything aimed at the schools and their improvements is good,” said Noyes, a mother of five--including a fifth-grader at Salk--who has lived in her Stanton home for 31 years. “I’ve been in the schools a long time and I’ve seen a lot of changes and not all for the good.”

Holly Johnson, a parent of two at Salk Elementary, said that for some time, the faucet in her daughter’s classroom did not work and bathrooms often were closed for repairs. “I’d like my kids to be comfortable in their classrooms,” she said.

Parents alone, however, could not have pushed the bond to victory. Mercier estimates that only 30% of voters who supported the bond were parents.

The district also has a much higher democratic registration than most of Orange County, which might have played a factor in the bond’s success. Democrats, who are generally more willing to pay increased taxes, outnumber Republicans by 3 to 2 in the area.

Among those was Fausto Challogan, retired from the Naval Weapons Base in Seal Beach, who does not have children in the schools, but supported the bond nonetheless.

His ballot was cast, he said, after careful weighing of the issues.

While he voted for the Magnolia bond--and encouraged his family to do the same--he also voted against Proposition 26, which would have lowered the bar by which school bonds are approved, from a two-thirds majority to simple majority. Recent school-funding measures in Irvine and Huntington Beach failed to garner the two-thirds needed to pass.

“I read enough to realize the schools really need the money to take care of the infrastructure,” Challogan said.

“I knew they hadn’t had a major [renovation] probably since the ‘50s, and I believe in education. But I’m a property owner and I also wanted to cover my butt.”

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