School bond opponents speak up

Danette Goulet

NEWPORT-MESA -- Despite what appears to be overwhelming support for an

upcoming $110-million school bond measure, there are residents who are

just as adamantly opposed to it.

Newport Beach resident Kurt English has worked to defeat similar proposed

taxes throughout the county and he is not likely to make an exception for

Newport-Mesa, he said.

“Now that Newport-Mesa wants to [pass a bond], I’d like to meet with the

superintendent and school board member Wendy Leece, who both [supported]

this bond, and find out their reasons for supporting it,” he said. “I’ll

give them the courtesy of an audience before I begin a campaign to fight

it.”

English is by no means alone in his stance on the issue.

Bob Beveridge, who lives in Newport Beach and owns a small business in

Costa Mesa, said he would not support a tax to pay for repairs that the

Newport-Mesa Unified School District should have been making, or at least

saved for, all along.

It is a common opinion held among many conservatives in Newport Beach and

Costa Mesa.

“Their lack of responsibility makes them undeserving of our help,” said

Kent Moore, a Newport Beach resident and retired Orange Unified School

District official. “The districts must put aside monies for the

improvements and repairs of schools.”

Supt. Robert Barbot said that over the years, some of the district’s

budget has been spent on maintenance -- although it clearly wasn’t

adequate.

“You’d be surprised how in those same years that the economy was

struggling, they had to make choices -- do we cut a math program or a

reading or football program?” Barbot said.

English agreed that half of the blame lies in Sacramento, with the

governor earmarking nearly 80% of school budgets. However, he said it

still does not justify taxing residents.

“The government-run school system is failing,” he said. “With all these

mandates, what is a school board to do? In a sense, I feel sorry for

them. But I’d like to know what correspondence has gone out asking them

to remove these mandates.”

But Mark Schultheis, who is leading the campaign to support the bond,

said even if people fight the bond, the condition of area schools remains

a problem that needs attention.

“Any argument you might make for defeating a bond measure brings you

right back to the same point, which is, we still have to fix our schools

and if we don’t pass a bond measure, I don’t know how we’re going to do

that,” Schultheis said. “You can make any argument you want. That won’t

get our schools fixed.”

If the bond does not pass, Leece said the board will fall back to Plan B,

or even Plan C.

First, she said, by going for the bond the district is eligible for $53

million in state matching funds. There is no guarantee, however, that

Newport-Mesa will receive the grant.

If that falls through, the third option would be to try for the bond

again, she said. It is not an eventuality that Barbot wants to plan for.

“We’d do the best we can, but obviously it won’t be as good as if the

school bond passed,” Barbot said. “I’m not going there because honestly,

we have make this [bond] pass.”

English said he has a laundry list of items the district must first

accomplish before he will stop fighting the bond.

“For me not to oppose the bond, I’ve got to be convinced that it is

necessary and that there are conditions in place that will stop this from

happening again -- a set-aside of some kind.” English said. “The

oversight committee also needs to be made up of independent people --

competent, knowledgeable people that can look at a plan and know what it

means. It can’t be all bureaucrats.”