Callers measuring support

The tiny campaign headquarters had only a few volunteers Tuesday

evening, but scattered around it were the signs of many long nights

ahead.

Eighteen shiny, newly-purchased telephones filled the five

offices, each one accompanied by a green folder containing voters’

numbers. Styrofoam bowls of pretzels and trail mix lay mostly

untouched on the tables, with coffee and candy bars packing the

cupboards in back. On the wall of the largest room hung a huge map of

Newport Beach and Costa Mesa, its white surface awaiting a flurry of

pen marks before Nov. 8.

The campaigners had a simple mission: to sway as many voters as

possible to support Measure F, the $282-million school bond that

seeks to modernize every campus in the Newport-Mesa Unified School

District. At 6:16 p.m. Tuesday, parent volunteer Vicki Snell made the

first call of tens of thousands to come.

“I’m a parent of a student at Adams Elementary and TeWinkle Middle

School,” Snell said into the phone, reading from a script with spaces

left blank for school names. “I’m volunteering this evening to ask

for your support of a critically important measure that will directly

benefit our local schools and students.”

The woman on the other end was a parent of a former Corona del Mar

High School student, and as she spoke, Snell nodded and circled a few

words on her contact list. Finally, hanging up the phone, she turned

around and declared a supporter.

“What a nice lady!” she exclaimed. “She’s dripping wet, and she

just got out of the shower.”

By the time the Measure F campaign ends -- somewhere around

midnight on Nov. 7 -- many people will have spent many hours in the

campaign headquarters, pitching the school bond to registered voters.

The last Newport-Mesa school bond, Measure A, garnered 72% of the

vote in 2000, but current campaign chairman Mark Buchanan said his

group won’t merely be contacting former supporters.

Rather, the Measure F campaign hopes to reach every voter in town,

even ones for whom “renovation” and “seismic” are foreign words.

“If we call them and they’re unable to communicate, we’ll make a

stack of those people and have someone contact them who can speak

Spanish,” Buchanan said. “We want to make sure everyone’s registered

and aware of what’s going on.”

In 2000, the campaign committee Citizens to Rebuild Our Schools

spent more than $100,000 calling voters, printing fliers and

canvassing neighborhoods to drum up support for Measure A. A number

of corporate donors, including the Irvine Co., C. J. Segerstrom and

Sons and Pacific Life, contributed funds. Ariane Lehew, a bond

advisor who helped to run the Measure A campaign, has returned for

this go-round.

For a campaign that seeks to push the biggest school bond in

Newport-Mesa history, the Measure F drive got off to a quiet start

Tuesday. By 7 p.m., only five volunteers -- Snell, College Park

Elementary School Principal Pat Insley, Andersen Elementary School

Principal Mary Manos, Adams Elementary School teacher Debbie Ferguson

and Adams Elementary School parent Rachel Scott-Bruce -- had showed

up to work the phones. Dan Oliver, chairman for the Estancia zone,

chipped in as well.

“In some ways, this is a practice run to see how it all works,”

Buchanan said.

In the coming weeks, the headquarters -- in a slender office space

behind Kinko’s on Newport Boulevard -- may fill to capacity. Each

school site in Newport-Mesa plans to create its own campaign

coordination team, and some may even bring in students to contact

voters.

Oliver, who has two sons at Estancia High School, said he wanted

to enlist the school’s athletes for the campaign. Among the projects

planned for Estancia under Measure F is an outdoor sports complex.

“We’re trying to get our football players to come,” Oliver said.

“One of the big benefits is that the two Costa Mesa schools will have

their own facility.”

This week, the Measure F team finally wrote out project lists for

the individual school sites -- answering questions that many

residents had since the school board approved the measure in August.

Among the specific goals mentioned are replacing the vacated

Robins Hall at Newport Harbor High School, constructing the stadium

at Estancia, separating middle school classes at Corona del Mar High

School, installing a new pool at Costa Mesa High School and building

a gymnasium at TeWinkle Middle School.

All 22 elementary schools in Newport-Mesa have plans that involve

science classrooms, upgraded technology, and new libraries and

multi-purpose rooms.

Insley, who campaigned for Measure A, said the science classrooms

were among her main concerns at College Park.

“What’s lacking is the ability to do hands-on activities,” she

said. “If there’s water involved, if there’s mess involved, it’s

easier to do it in that special classroom.”