Schools Unveil $20-Million Wish List

MOORPARK — With grand plans but limited cash reserves, the Moorpark Unified School District may ask local taxpayers this fall for more money to expand local schools.

Supt. Thomas Duffy on Wednesday outlined for school board members a $20-million wish list of expansion plans for each of the district’s nine schools and said the money could come from either a bond issue or the creation of a special tax district.

Both steps would add to local taxes and require voter approval. Duffy said he will research both options further before recommending which one the school district should pursue.

Moorpark voters would then be asked for their verdict, most likely in Nov. 4. The last time the district tried to approve a bond issue, a $25.5-million measure in 1990, the effort failed.

Several board members balked at the size of this proposed bond, saying it could add close to $200 to the annual tax bills of property owners.

“We’re looking for voters to assess themselves a pretty big property tax,” Trustee Clint Harper said.

But Trustee David Pollock said the bond issue would only result in such a high annual cost to taxpayers if the district sold all the bonds at once, instead of making them available over many years.

“Obviously, we wouldn’t incur that kind of load on taxpayers,” he said.

Despite those concerns, the district will need some extra source of cash to implement all of the school improvements planned.

A recent independent audit of district finances showed that while the district is in generally good financial health, it has endured three straight years of deficit spending, eating away at its financial reserves.

The budget will be further strained this year, Harper said, by efforts to reduce the size of elementary school classes.

The district’s tight finances stand in stark contrast to its far-reaching plans, most of them still tentative, to expand local schools. Proposed projects include:

* Moorpark High School will need a new gym, more parking, music facilities and possibly tennis courts, with an estimated total cost of $7.5 million.

* At Community High School, district officials want to buy an adjacent one-acre parcel and build more classrooms--$2 million.

* Chaparral Middle School, which has recently undergone extensive renovation, still needs an expanded library and a new gym--$1 million.

* Mesa Verde Middle School needs new rooms for science and arts classes--$1 million.

* Campus Canyon and Mountain Meadows elementary schools will need additional, permanent classrooms to deal with the long-term effects of class-size reduction efforts. Both schools also need new student drop-off locations. Combined cost for both schools is $1 million to $1.5 million.

* Peach Hill elementary school needs a new multipurpose room, complete with kitchen and restroom--$300,000 to $500,000.

* Arroyo West elementary school needs more classrooms--$300,000 to $500,000.

* Flory elementary school, the district’s oldest campus, needs unspecified modernization work--$200,000 to $300,000.

Duffy cautioned that the renovations list, which also includes about $4 million for the construction of a new elementary school on Casey Road, is still tentative and that all the prices are rough estimates.

The plan, however, does not include expansion that future development in the city may require.

“The growth that this would accommodate is growth that’s already there,” he said.

As tools for financing expansion, both the bond issue and the special facilities tax district have their advantages, Duffy said. Whereas a bond issue would cover the entire school district, facilities districts can be shaped to cover specific areas within the district.

Supported by the parcel tax, a facilities district could, for example, be created to cover areas of the city that have not yet been developed. If future housing projects in those areas created a need for new schools, the facilities district would pay for their construction, Duffy said.