After a contentious campaign, Hermosa Beach voters approved school facilities bond Measure S on Tuesday, less than two years after narrowly rejecting a previous school bond.
As of 9 a.m. Wednesday morning, preliminary data from the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder showed all precincts accounted for and that Measure S had accumulated 2,909 “Yes” votes to 2,029 opposed. That made for a margin of 58.91 percent to 41.09 percent.
Under Proposition 39, school facilities bonds require approval of 55 percent of voters.
The bond measure will provide $59 million to ease overcrowding in the district. In addition to upgrades at View and Valley, the Hermosa Beach City School District’s current campuses, it will rebuild North School, a district-owned campus currently used as a preschool, and reopen the campus for third and fourth graders.
Measure S is the first school bond to pass in Hermosa in 14 years. Two previous bond measures and a parcel tax failed.
Measure Q, the most recent attempt to tackle overcrowding, fell 32 votes short in November 2014. The loss by Measure Q came less than six months before the March 2015 vote on Measure O, which would have lifted Hermosa’s ban on oil drilling in the tidelands. Drawing huge turnout, the measure was handily defeated, and galvanized activists in the city.
Michael Collins, co-chair of the campaign committee for Measure S, was also deeply involved in the No on O campaign, and said that the oil issue provided a template for the current school bond. Shortly after the defeat of Measure O, Collins and Kevin Sousa, another prominent member of the anti-oil campaign, were approached by Christine Shultz, Christine Tasto and Heather Baboolal. The trio of Hermosa mothers wanted to apply the techniques of Keep Hermosa Hermosa, a political organization born out of the fight against oil, to the upcoming school bond.
The result was HERO, the Hermosa Educational Renewal Operation. A “Million Mom March” hosted more than two dozen coffees throughout the town, uniting residents who might never have otherwise met.
“They started prepping a mom’s campaign over a year ago,” Collins said. “They developed a Facebook presence and a great web site. They did their homework, and when it was time, the volunteer list was ready.”
The organizational energy in favor of Measure S was matched by a passionate network of opponents. Throughout the campaign, they questioned the district’s tactics in preparing the bond, arguing that the district had focused singlemindedly on the rebuilding North School at the expense of other options. A series of reports that the district prepared in response to the criticism — which will now likely be used to meet construction requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act — did little to ease opponents’ skepticism.
The electoral victory of Measure S is unlikely to end the controversy. At previous meetings on the bond, residents have threatened to sue the district in the event Measure S passed. A previous lawsuit over school bond Measure J, approved by Hermosa voters in 2002, was unanimously dismissed by the California Court of Appeal in 2006.
Resident Parker Herriott has also sent a letter requesting a criminal investigation of the district over its handling of bond issues. The district attorney’s office has received the complaint and it is currently under review, said Jane Robison, assistant chief of media relations for the D.A.
James Scott, a co-founder of HERO, said that despite the contentious tone of the campaign, backers of Measure S had managed to bring together a diverse coalition, including many childless residents.
“It’s amazing how just from that small beginning it bloomed into this,” Scott said at a Yes on S event on election night, gesturing at gathered crowd. “The most gratifying thing is that we started something that became bigger than we could have imagined.”
