SUPPORTERS CHEER WIN FOR SCHOOL BUILDING BOND.

Byline: Naush Boghossian Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA - Local public school officials were elated Wednesday after voter approval of the $13 billion school construction bond measure that will provide nearly $250 million for school construction and repair in the Santa Clarita Valley.

The state bond will fund a backlog of approved construction and renovation projects at critically overcrowded schools - projects that have remained unfunded because the state did not have the money.

Local schools have put construction and modernization projects on hold because of a need for state matching funds, but now state money will provide the schools with the state's share of the costs.

``It gives us certainty in how we are going to be funded and when we are going to be funded,'' said Rory Livingston, assistant superintendent of business at the William S. Hart Union High School District. ``We've got that school construction train moving down the track.''

The Hart district will receive about $180 million in new construction funding and other funds.

``We are ecstatic with the passage of Prop. 47,'' Hart Superintendent Bob Lee said. ``We are hopeful that the state funding process will begin soon.''

The district expects the bond to finance approved ``hardship'' funding for Golden Valley High School and the full funding for West Ranch High and Rancho Pico Junior High. Hardship money was allowed by the state before local voters approved a separate district bond for construction.

Lee expects to take bids for Golden Valley to the board in December, and bids for Rancho Pico and West Ranch around June.

The planned Castaic high school will be funded with the bond money as well.

The passage of the bond measure is especially sweet for the Sulphur Springs School District in Canyon Country. The money will be the only source for construction and renovation projects for elementary schools there.

The district is in line to receive at least $20 million, or 100 percent of the project costs, since it doesn't have the resources to match funds.

``For us, (Proposition 47) had added incentive, since the only resource we had available was developer fees,'' said Sulphur Springs Superintendent Robert Nolet. Now the state will provide 100 percent to the district because it qualifies for hardship status.

Nolet said the district anticipates awarding a bid for the expansion and modernization of Leona Cox Elementary by the end of this month, followed by submitting its plans for Mint Canyon Elementary. Proposition 47 money will also provide the district with planning funds for its ninth and 10th schools.

Community college projects will receive $170.5 million of the $13 billion for construction and modernization.

College of the Canyons expects to use its $22 million - money it expects the state will release in July - on two approved buildings.

The college will receive matching funds to build a high-tech laboratory center and a science laboratory addition, both creating a new wing on the existing science building. The state money will match a local college bond approved by voters last year.

``We'll be first in line to get money from the state because we'll be able to access state funds to add to our local funds,'' college spokeswoman Sue Bozman said. ``It made what local voters did here twice as valuable.''

While supporters lauded the measure as the only way to alleviate overcrowding at local schools, opponents argued that the state doesn't have the money for Proposition 47. The bond, they said, will inflict additional debt on the state, already holding tens of billions of dollars in outstanding bonds on which taxpayers are paying interest.

The state's legislative analyst estimates the measure would cost taxpayers about $26.2 billion over 30 years, including $13.15 billion in interest, or about $873 million annually.

An additional $12.3 billion will be up for approval in the March 2004 election.