GAY GEISER-SANDOVAL -- Educationally Speaking

I talked to someone who is against the school bond on June 6, which

would provide funds to upgrade our neighborhood school facilities. He

said when he was young, the area suffered major earthquakes and he went

to class wherever they could find a place. When my mom was in high

school, the Long Beach earthquake leveled her school that was made of

bricks. She had class in tents or out in the open where the school had

once stood.

Obviously, in the case of a disaster, we will all make do. If the

school bond doesn’t pass, the school district won’t close up shop on June

7. But let’s think about the long-term impact.

How would you like to work in a broken building? That is what you are

asking teachers to do. We know that many of our current teachers are

going to retire in the next five years.

Just imagine the disclosures that you would have to make as you try to

hire a new teacher:

1. “Don’t turn on the heater in your classroom because toxic fumes

might come out. We are working on getting a classroom set of blankets

issued before winter comes.”

2. “Keep one of your trash cans free to catch drips if the roof

leaks.”

3. “Keep an eye out for falling ceiling tiles and try to give a

warning shout to the student it is about to land on.”

4. “The walls in this school are growing a lot of mildew, so students

with asthma and allergies may have severe attacks. Get them outdoors as

soon as possible.”

5. “Don’t bring in a fan to cool down your room, even if the windows

don’t open. If you do, it blows a fuse for the whole school.”

6. “We know that some schools in the district are nicer than others,

but we want you to work in the one with the problems.”

I work in an office building with a permanent staff in charge of

building maintenance. The tenants expect a problem to be remedied in

hours, not years. When the air conditioning was turned off so that a

better model could be installed, the complaints went on all day.

Most of our schools have no air conditioning and some have broken

heaters. For some reason, we have been willing to subject our children

and our teachers to building conditions that we would never tolerate in

our own home or workplace. Why are we willing to let them be in a worse

place than we would want to be? If the bond passes, the schools will get

fixed so that they will be safe in an earthquake. All of the classrooms,

wherever they are located, will be the same.

There are about 90,000 registered voters in the district, but over

half of them won’t vote in the election, because there are no national or

state issues involved. Of those that vote, two out of every three have to

vote yes in order for school buildings to improve. Some people will vote

no, even though their property value will increase if we have schools in

good repair with quality teachers who want to work in them.

It is predicted that 25,000 of us have to vote yes on June 6 in order

for the bond to pass. Will you be one of them or are you willing to have

our local students go to school in tents?

* GAY GEISER-SANDOVAL is a Costa Mesa resident. Her column runs

Tuesdays. She can be reached by e-mail at [email protected].