$161-Million Glendale Schools Bond Proposed

Schools Supt. James Brown Tuesday proposed a $161-million bond issue--the estimated amount needed to renovate and upgrade the district’s aging and heavily used campuses.

If approved, the money would be used to fix nearly each of the district’s 19 elementary, five middle school and four high school campuses, more than half of which were built in the first half of the century.

Making the recommendation at a meeting of the Glendale school board, Brown also said the bond amount could soar to $180 million or higher if the board decides to rebuild two elementary schools and construct a major addition to Crescenta Valley High School, as Brown has proposed.

“We don’t have a choice not to do this. We’ve got to come up with funds to support the renovation of our school facilities,” Brown said in an interview. “If we do not, it’s going to be increasingly hard to provide a quality education to our students. Our buildings are just out of date.”

Outdated plumbing, heating, lighting and electrical systems are common, and many buildings need new wiring so they can accommodate new computers, audiovisual systems and other technology, officials said.

“Some of the schools here date back to the teens and 1920s, and haven’t been renovated since the 1940s or ‘50s,” district spokesman Vic Pallos said. “We’re at a point now where there is a tremendous amount of work to be done, and very few options as to where to get the funding.”

District officials have been exploring a bond issue for more than two years. Initial estimates pegged the bond amount at about $100 million, but district officials now say the extent of renovations needed is greater than they initially believed.

“When we first started talking about this, I don’t think any of us thought it could be this expensive,” board member Jane Whitaker said. “But once we seriously looked into it and had task forces study it, we realized that the infrastructure on all of our campuses has really deteriorated.”

Brown said the bonds, which require a two-thirds majority for approval, would be repaid by property tax assessments over a 10- or 15-year period. Although the bond amount has not been determined, he said he expects homeowners would pay about $50 to $60 per year for every $100,000 worth of assessed value on their property.

The school board must decide by Jan. 28 the dollar amount of the bond issue and what projects it would cover in order to appear on the June ballot, officials said.