OUSD looks at work done with 2000 bond

By: STACY BRANDT - Staff Writer | Wednesday, January 16, 2008 12:22 AM PST ∞

OCEANSIDE -- As Oceanside Unified School District trustees consider asking voters to pass another school construction bond, district officials Tuesday gave an update on how money has been spent from the district's 2000 bond.

The update, part of the school board's regular meeting, included a report on work still going on at Chavez Middle School and El Camino High School.

The district has built three schools and renovated six others with money related to the bond measure approved by voters in 2000. The work has added 240 classrooms to the campuses, which added the capacity for 2,400 more students, said Robyn Phillips, assistant superintendent in charge of business services.

"The schools we've finished, they're completely transformed," Phillips said.

In addition to the $125 million included in the bond itself, the district got $75 million from the state and an additional $12 million from developer fees, interest and federal money for the projects.

That money has also paid for planning on projects district officials hope to complete.

This is where another bond measure would come in. Trustees have discussed the possibility of putting another proposition on the ballot this year, thought they haven't voted on it.

District officials still hope to renovate at least 10 more campuses and add capacity at the three on Camp Pendleton to include children in grades six, seven and eight.

"Many of our schools were built in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s," Phillips explained.

Money from the 2000 bond hasn't paid for as much work as district officials had hoped, largely because of ever-increasing construction costs, officials have said.

Phillips pointed to this rise by comparing construction costs for Nichols and Foussat elementary schools. Though they are the exact same design, Foussat cost $15 million when it was finished last year, compared with Nichols, which was built in 2002 for $10 million.

The last new campus being built with money from the 2000 bond, Chavez Middle School, is almost complete after months of delays. District officials said they expect students to move into their new classrooms next month.

The school was originally expected to open last August, but the opening was delayed because the company the district hired to build the campus, C.E. Wylie, was behind schedule.

The roughly 900 students who were to start at the campus instead moved into portable classrooms at the former site of Pacifica Elementary School while work at Chavez was finished.

Also at Tuesday's meeting, the board recognized Oceanside High School football coach John Carroll and his team for their win last month at the California Interscholastic Federation state championship.

"There is something special going on in Oceanside," Carroll said as he accepted the award. "We are the talk -- not of the town -- we're the talk of the state of California."

-- Contact staff writer Stacy Brandt at (760) 901-4009 or sbrandt@nctimes.com.