Doing Their Homework

Thirty years have passed since Linda Evans whiled away hot afternoons in a windowless cellblock of classrooms that her son at Crescenta Valley High School in Glendale today calls the “bunker” building.

Evans, 46, now the dean of students, wants it leveled.

Heartened that Burbank and Los Angeles voters approved school bond measures last month, she and other Glendale school supporters are exhorting residents to pass a $186-million bond measure June 3 to help renovate facilities that date from the 1920s.

It will be the first bond referendum in Glendale since 1964--and yet another example, observers say, of how consultants are called into town to help school activists try to sway two-thirds of the voters to their cause.

“We try not to deal with things that are abstract, like, ‘These children will be the next generation of leaders,’ ” said Oakland-based consultant Larry Tramutola, who worked for Burbank and is working as a Glendale schools booster.

“What we try to do is talk specifics,” Tramutola said, “the nuts-and-bolts things that need to be done to the schools.”

Longtime school activist Mary Boger said money is needed to fix deteriorating plumbing, heating, electrical and lighting systems, along with cramped classrooms that are ill-equipped for modern use.

“Our facilities are just worn out,” said Glendale Schools Supt. James A. Brown, who served as the Palo Alto school superintendent when 81% of the voters approved a $141-million bond measure two years ago.

In addition to the aged facilities, the 30,000-student district has seen a decade-long surge of enrollment among immigrant children, including those of Armenian descent in south Glendale, school spokesman Vic Pallos said. Also squeezing resources is the district’s effort to reduce first-grade classes to 20 students each, in concert with the statewide class-reduction initiative that began last year, he said.

Of Measure K’s $186 million in proceeds, administrators have earmarked $30 million for building two elementary schools and either a small magnet high school or a middle school, Pallos said. The remaining $156 million would go toward the renovation and expansion of facilities, with La Crescenta High School due to receive $22.2 million, the largest share.

In a poll of residents, Tramutola’s firm found that 74% would support a measure that would cost homeowners an average $49.91 per $100,000 of assessment for the next 32 years, Pallos said. A two-thirds majority, or 66.7%, is required for passage.

Although there is no organized opposition to the bond issue, some community members, such as Beala Neel, question the district’s stated need for cash.

“I feel the money should be concentrated on academics as opposed to brick and mortar,” the 52-year-old art director said. “What we need is discipline . . . to eliminate coddling programs.”

Glendale boosters look to the success of bonds in the Los Angeles and Burbank school districts.

“Does recent success say anything about the next round [in Glendale]?” asked political consultant Brad Senden. “The answer is yes, because underpinning the willingness to give some of your tax money is the strength of the economy.”

Brown, noting that Glendale’s bond proponents closely monitored their peers in Burbank, said, “After [successful campaigns in] Los Angeles and Burbank, there’s a climate now that’s supportive for this measure.

“People know the relationship between good schools and the quality of life in the community--it’s property values,” Brown said.