By Dawn Witlin, The Camarillo Acorn -
Nine years after voters passed Measure H, a $135-million bond initiative to renovate facilities and build two new high schools in Oxnard Union High School District, campuses remain overcrowded and construction has yet to begin on either of the new schools.
A recent Ventura County grand jury investigation into the district’s use of funds from Measure H, approved by voters in 2004, chastises Oxnard Union officials for what the jury considered misleading advertising and for movng too slowly on making good on the district’s promises during the election.
Oxnard Union includes seven high schools, an independent study program and an adult school. It serves an estimated 16,000 students in Port Hueneme, Oxnard and Camarillo.
Misleading sales pitch?
Political advertisements distributed by district officials to voters within the school district’s boundaries during the election varied drastically, the grand jury reported in its findings.
A flier distributed to Oxnard voters indicated the bond money would alleviate overcrowding at schools in Oxnard and Port Hueneme but didn’t mention a new high school to be built in Camarillo, according to the report.
A flier to promote Measure H in Camarillo stated, “Vote yes on Measure H to help Camarillo High School and add a new high school in our community,” the report states.
The grand jury report says Adolfo Camarillo High School has experienced increased enrollment since the passage of the bond, while Rio Mesa High School is at capacity with 2,100 students.
“There were radio advertisements and a campaign to enlist the support of the voters, and the people were misled,” said Jay Whitney, grand jury foreman. “The overcrowdings are still there, and the bond authorized new school facilities to reduce overcrowding, but millions of bond dollars later, that’s still the case.”
Pick up the pace
The bond stipulated that the district form a volunteer oversight committee to keep tabs on how the bond money was spent.
The report calls out members of the district’s school board and bond oversight committee for failing to issue the funds in a timely manner. An unsuccessful bid to merge Camarillo High with Pleasant Valley School District in 2008 contributed to the delay.
“The (bond oversight committee) met once in March 2005 and did not meet again until March 2011,” the report states. “District officials delayed issuing funds from the $135 million in authorized bonds while the Camarillo school unification proposal was considered.”
Whitney said the high school district should have formed a more solid plan for use of the bond money before asking voters to approve Measure H.
“You have to do that before you promise people things, and we take a dim view of the classic bait-and-switch approach,” Whitney said. “We’re talking about millions of dollars from taxpayers of whom we’re the watchdogs for, and we’d be derelict if we didn’t report it.”
Recommendations
The grand jury recommends in its report that the district use the bond oversight committee to review all proposed expenditures of bond monies, as required by Measure H and approved by voters.
Fred Ferro, chair of the bond oversight committee, said members of the committee meet regularly to review the Measure H expenses and report their findings to the school board several times a year.
“They’re asking us to do the job we’ve already been doing,” Ferro said.
He said it is the duty of the school board, not the oversight committee, to decide when and where the bond money is spent. He added that the oversight committee is charged with determining whether the money is being misspent.
The district bought unincorporated property behind the Camarillo Library on Las Posas Road in October 2004. It plans to break ground on an academy high school—with a focus on performing arts, engineering and design, and biomedical programs—in January and hopes to open the school by fall 2015.
Groundbreaking on the $60-million bond-funded project will not occur until the land can be annexed by the City of Camarillo.
Superintendent Gabe Soumakian said the process for building the new high school in Camarillo has been slow-moving due to the lengthy process required to annex the land in cooperation with the City Council and the Local Agency Formation Commission, which authorizes boundary changes.
The annexation process is moving forward. The Camarillo City Council is awaiting to see and approve a final environmental impact report on the project. Once the city signs off, the campus plans are sent to the formation commission to either approve or deny annexation of the property.
“I think building any high school in general is very cumbersome,” Soumakian said. “This project is moving at a fast-forward pace right now, and we’re working with the city and LAFCo to hopefully have it completed by August of 2015.”
Soumakian said the academy is projected to accommodate about 800 ninth- and 10th-grade students. A high school planned for construction in Oxnard sometime in the next year will have room for 2,250 students.
Meanwhile, Bakersfield-based S.C. Anderson construction is building a new concrete pool and aquatic center at Camarillo High using the bond money. The pool is expected to be completed in January and to open in June 2014. Apool is also being built at Hueneme High School in Oxnard.
Steve Dickinson, assistant superintendent of fiscal services for the district, said the school board and bond oversight committee plan to respond to the grand jury findings in writing within the next few weeks.
“I’m not overly concerned with the report because I know our bond oversight committee is extremely active and informed about all of our school projects for Camarillo and Oxnard as far as the new school and the new pools, so I’m very comfortable with what the district is doing,” Dickinson said.
“I give (the oversight committee) every piece of information they request, and they are very in tune with all the construction projects that the bond funds are being used for.”
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