$3.3 BILLION SCHOOL BOND PROPOSED.

Byline: Sonia Giordani Staff Writer

Los Angeles Unified Superintendent Roy Romer unveiled details Friday of a record $3.3 billion school bond issue he will recommend the board of education put before voters in November.

The majority of the funds - about $2.6 billion - would go to new school construction. Romer said the funds are critical for the district to match state school bond money also slated for the ballot this fall, and needed to relieve overcrowding, end forced busing and return students to their neighborhood schools.

Romer specifically appealed to San Fernando Valley voters as they prepare to vote this fall on whether to secede from the city, saying the school district would remain whole regardless of the outcome of secession.

``We have to build these buildings no matter what,'' said Romer, noting that Valley schools receive a growing number of students being bused from other parts of the city. ``We have a terribly great need we have to fill. And if we don't fill it, it's just going to mean more overcrowded schools in the Valley.''

The board of education must still vote to put the bond issue on the November ballot.

Board President Caprice Young is expected to introduce a separate measure that would have the panel lay out plans to oversee the way the funds get spent.

Under the proposal, the board would expand the role of the citizens' oversight committee appointed for Proposition BB, the last LAUSD school bond passed by voters in April 1997 to raise $2.4 billion - a program racked with problems including a $600 million shortfall and hundreds of bungled projects. The proposal calls on the committee to include one professional consultant with auditing experience and an independent counsel.

The bond proposal includes $606 million to fix existing campuses with a range of repairs, from new fire alarms to new cafeterias.

Valley schools would see $127 million, including $36 million to reopen Hughes Middle School and Hesby Street Elementary School to accommodate expected enrollment growth.

The bond also spells out $38 million for school libraries, including new books, at an average cost of $22 per title.

Romer said the the district will likely have to ask voters for another bond in a couple of years so every school can return to a traditional two-semester system.

The bond proposed for fall would cost not more than $60 per $100,000 of assessed valuation of taxable property.

But taxpayer advocates say the cost would come on top of what property owners are already paying for Proposition BB, which was estimated five years ago to average $37.14 per $100,000 of a property's assessed value.

``We get to the point of no return in terms of the ability of the average homeowner to make the payments,'' said Lewis Uhler, president of National Tax Limitation Committee. ``Add on to that the huge state bonded indebtedness, and I think we're in trouble statewide.''

Others said the measure follows too closely on the heels of Proposition BB and its problems.