LAS VIRGENES OFFICIALS DETAIL BUILDING PLANS; $93 MILLION TO BE SOUGHT FOR REPAIRS, NEW SCHOOLS.

Byline: Teresa Jimenez Daily News Staff Writer

The repairs needed at schools around the Las Virgenes district can't necessarily be seen by visitors, but students and teachers can tell you how rain leaks through the rotted slats that cover outdoor walkways and how the air conditioning seems to break down on the hottest days.

The problems have resulted from normal wear and lengthy use, district officials said. And, although the district would like to make improvements, it does not have the money, said Donald Zimring, assistant superintendent of business services for the district.

So the district is turning to voters, who will be asked in November to consider a $93 million bond measure for school improvements.

Zimring acknowledges that administrators have a lot of persuading to do, especially since the campuses look pretty good on the surface.

``People say you won't get people to pass a bond,'' Zimring said. ``I say, oh great; we're getting punished because we have a crew that works hard to make our schools look nice.''

Zimring points to A.E. Wright Middle School, one of the district's oldest campuses that served as an elementary school in the 1950s. The facade that faces Las Virgenes Road has a fresh coat of paint and an attractive school sign.

But the wooden overhangs that protect students from rain are deteriorating.

``If you stood on these, you'd fall through,'' Zimring said. ``We need to tear them down and rebuild them.''

And portions of the portable preschool buildings at the back of the campus are bare and crumbling from wood rot.

``These are 33-year-old `temporary' buildings,'' Zimring said. ``These buildings would just go. We would replace these.''

The projects are two of many outlined in a 27-page report the district has compiled. The school board voted Monday to hold a bond election.

``The process we've used has been very open,'' Zimring said. ``This hasn't taken anyone by surprise.''

Paying the bond debt would cost property owners $29 a year for every $100,000 of assessed property value, which would be stretched over 28 years.

The Las Virgenes district previously sought $3 million in assessments from taxpayers in 1991 and 1993. By margins of 3 percent or less, both proposals failed to get the two-thirds majority needed to pass.

This time, district officials decided to compile a detailed list of what the money would finance.

The list includes building a new middle school and two new elementary schools, repairing roofs and improving air conditioning. The state would pay for half the cost of new schools and modernization of others, Zimring said.

Officials also are proposing projects such as the completion of Calabasas High School, built in 1976.

``It was supposed to be built in four phases, but the state ran out of money after the third phase,'' Zimring said. ``The gym was never finished. No classrooms were ever built for music. No counseling offices were built. The offices and classrooms were all going to be in the same wing.''

A cluster of restrooms also was omitted. One of the school's two-story buildings has more than a dozen classrooms and one toilet. The district converted a storage closet to hold that toilet after teachers protested lack of any, officials said.

Because a locker room for girls was never built, the boys' locker room was partitioned into two.

Counseling offices were created by dividing classroom space, and a school office was created by removing an inside wall, Zimring said. ``Temporary'' solutions have been tolerated for more than 20 years, Zimring said, and now the district also needs to deal with growing enrollment.

Some problems are almost unbearable, he said.

``The air conditioning here is beyond horrendous,'' he said about Calabasas High. ``We have a repair guy here every day to fix it. It's a monster. It's huge and it doesn't work.''

For energy-use efficiency, the high school was built without windows that open, so students and faculty swelter when the air conditioning fails, he said.

District officials are relying on parents to help promote the bond issue. Volunteer captains in each of eight areas will help make sure that registered voters get to the polls, he said.

CAPTION(S):

4 Photos

Photo: (1--color) Don Zimring, Las Virgenes assistant superintendent of business services, notes leaks in a walkway cover at A.E. Wright School.

(2--color) Lockers older than the students show wear at Calabasas High School.

(3) District official Don Zimring stands on the site where a locker room has been proposed for more than 20 years at Calabasas High.

(4) Cracks, opening the way to weeds, lace a walkway at A.E. Wright Middle School.

Joe Binoya/Special to the Daily News