Groups ready for bond spar

With the Newport-Mesa Unified School District having approved a

November ballot measure to fund more campus renovations, the

community soon may be reliving recent history.

Five years ago, voters in the district passed Measure A -- a

$110-million bond measure to pay for the cleaning and repair of

school sites -- by a resounding 72%. That followed months of intense

campaigning by supporters and strong opposition from several anti-tax

groups.

Those same groups are still in town, and few, if any, have changed

their position on taxpayers footing the bill for school repairs. So

leading up to the Nov. 8 special election, voters may begin finding

fliers on their doors once again.

“We actually feel exactly the same way as the organization did

then,” said Jeff Corless, president of the Orange County Young

Republicans, an activist group that campaigned against the measure in

2000. “We have not taken an official position, but as far as my

position as president, I am in agreement with [former President] Kurt

English as far as those types of bond measures are concerned.

“I would say that a bond measure is not the answer. The answer is

more responsible spending at the local level, and the answer is the

local school board seeking their fair share from Sacramento.”

In 2000, the Orange County Young Republicans led a telephone and

canvassing campaign to dissuade citizens from voting for Measure A.

At the same time, a Newport Coast group called the Citizens for

Equitable Taxation led a drive of its own, sending fliers to

residents of Newport-Mesa’s five Mello-Roos districts to remind them

that they already paid sizable property taxes for school construction

in their neighborhoods.

Ultimately, though, the groups in town supporting Measure A proved

to be the majority. A committee known as the Citizens to Rebuild Our

Schools raised more than $100,000 in cash donations to fund its

campaign, with the Irvine Co., the Segerstrom family and local

businesses contributing funds. In addition, the Newport-Mesa

Federation of Teachers, city council members and numerous school

district employees favored the measure and were part of a unified,

pro-bond force.

Despite the $282-million price tag on the new bond measure, many

community members are still voicing support for it.

“I personally am in favor of this, and I’m sure the teachers will

support the continuation of Measure A,” said Jim Rogers, president of

the Newport-Mesa Federation of Teachers. “I can’t see anybody being

opposed to going to work at a more up-to-date facility.”

Rogers said that he had not yet discussed the new measure with the

federation’s executive board but that he imagined the group would

campaign as it did five years ago.

Mark Schultheis, a former Newport Harbor High School parent who

co-chaired the Citizens to Rebuild Our Schools in 2000, said that he

expected the new ballot measure to pass easily because it reflects

the district’s current strategic plan.

“The district’s strategic plan represents the wishes of a very

broad section of the community, and the strategic plan is understood

to require new facilities,” Schultheis noted. “Since the strategic

plan received such strong support, I imagine the bond measure

required to implement it will receive strong support as well.”

According to the district, the new bond measure will not raise

residents’ property taxes higher than what they agreed to pay under

Measure A. As long as residents are funding Measure A, which is

expected to end construction by early 2007, they cannot pay it more

than $22.35 per $100,000 of their property’s assessed value.

Mark Buchanan, the chairman of the district’s Facility Advisory

Committee, said that combined annual property taxes for Measure A and

the new measure -- which some district officials have dubbed “Measure

A+” -- would not exceed $22.35 per $100,000.

Nevertheless, some members of Newport-Mesa’s Mello-Roos districts

-- areas in which residents pay extra property taxes to finance local

projects -- expressed doubts about voting for a measure that could

raise their bills even higher. Schools in Newport-Mesa’s Mello-Roos

areas are, by and large, the newest in the district and require the

least renovations.

“Where we live today, we’re in a significant Mello-Roos district,”

said Joe Krum, a parent at Newport Coast Elementary School. “We go to

a school where we’re asked to provide significant moneys on an annual

basis that aren’t paid for by the district. We participate in

numerous PTA fundraising drives for supplies that the district is not

providing. I would honestly be skeptical that any moneys given to the

district through this bond measure would improve my school.”

Alfred Willinger, the Newport Coast resident who led the Citizens

for Equitable Taxation campaign in 2000, did not return calls for

this story. Others in Newport Coast, however, said that they would

not be against paying extra money to help the district as a whole.

“My normal inclination is to vote for bond measures,” said Russell

Jura, who has lived in the neighborhood for three years. “I think

public education is important. I certainly don’t feel that just

because I pay a Mello-Roos fee, that I shouldn’t support the general

schools as well.”