[img]1805|right|Kathy Paspalis||no_popup[/img]Like most of her colleagues going into last week’s school bond election, School Board member Kathy Paspalis was publicly cautious and internally bursting with optimism.
“I was not entirely surprised” by the 76 percent of support for Measure CC, she said. “I kept my expectations lower. But I am thrilled the people of Culver City understand the value of a good public education and how we need to improve our facilities because most of them have seen them.
“We need to put our students and our teachers in 21st century facilities.”
Reflecting on the difference between last July 1 when the School Board voted 3-2 to end/suspend the bond campaign and last week’s overwhelming victory, Ms. Paspalis was candid:
“This year we have five Board members who are paying attention, who are on-board, who understand the condition of the schools because they all have been there and who worked hard to make this happen.”
Ms. Paspalis was Board president last summer. She and current president Laura Chardiet represented the minority vote when former member Karlo Silbiger led a Board charge to halt the bond campaign before the election filing deadline on the grounds that neither the Board nor the community had sufficient information.
“If the bond measure had gone to the voters then,” Ms. Paspalis said, “I have no doubt it would have passed in November. We had to wait until June, and now we can move forward.
“It was eight more months of work. I would not say it was worth the wait. I am glad, though, it is over.”
[img]1686|left|Laura Chardiet||no_popup[/img]For Ms. Chardiet, the last 11 months have been labor-intensive. “The difference is that a lot of communication has happened,” she said. “A lot of coalescing, of energy, of focus all have happened. In the end, we were able to bring everybody together.”
The bond would have won last summer, Ms. Chardiet speculated, “though it would have been a little rougher. This delay has given us a chance to focus our message, to concentrate on how we are going to prioritize projects. I am hoping the next phase will go smoothly because we already have built the coalition we need.”
Ms. Chardiet was bolder in her pre-vote outlook.
“There was not a doubt,” she said, “but I didn’t want anyone to think we were overconfident.”
She was not surprised that Measure CC crushed the opposition by more than 3-to-1. “We expected it to be in the 70s,” she said.
If she had written down a number before Election Day, Ms. Chardiet said it would have been 73 percent.
