There will be no July 1 this time to submarine the resuscitated bond measure campaign.
Hometown support is running so deeply and muscularly that a School Board member would not dare attempt to derail it – not that any one of them has the brass or the inclination to try.
The lone surprise last evening, at a special Board meeting, when Culver City-based pollster Paul Goodwin revealed the lopsided community survey results before a cozy, one-car crowd, was the size of the putative bond measure:
• $106 million, considerably heftier than figures previously speculated.
Mr. Goodwin said that in separate polling of 324 voters with a proclivity to participate in June primary elections and 502 likely November voters, respondents struck three desirable chords:
• They hold a strongly favorable view of how the School District is being run by Supt. Dave LaRose and his staff.
• They do not see “major problems” in the District.
• They concur with assayers that aging buildings throughout the compact District require upgrading – the chief concern.
When the Board votes in a month (Feb. 25) to place the measure on the June primary ballot, unlike last summer, not a whisper of a dissenting vote is expected.
The next 30 days will be devoted to informing and consulting with community membgers.
As anticipated, support for the back-to-life bond measure is overwhelming everywhere except at Holy Cross Cemetery and Hillside.
Mr. Goodwin, of Goodwin-Simon Strategic Research, trotted out a brimming wheelbarrow of exclamatory reactions to his extensive research that just concluded last Sunday morning.
Seventy-four percent said yes, 18 percent said no, and 9 percent asked for a few more years to decide. Fifty-five percent is required for passage. Seventy-two percent in the 18-34 age group gave their backing as did 75 percent of parents, 67 percent of homeowners, 73 percent of renters and 65 percent of non-parents.
With expiration of the present parcel tax looming, Mr. Goodwin counseled the School Board to run them separately – placing the bond measure on the June primary ballot and the parcel tax in November, unless the bond measure fails in June. Then, it probably would be brought back for a re-run in November.
The survey was broken down so finely that pollsters almost isolated those with and without first-rate winter tans on how they feel about the bond measure. Predictably, both were enthusiastic.
“I have done between 50 and 70 bond measure surveys for school districts,” Mr. Goodwin. “It is rare to see this level of enthusiasm. As a Culver City resident for the last 28 years, I am proud to say that.”
