$7-billion Measure Q would fund school construction and modernization

Exhibit A for this argument is brand-new Helen Bernstein High in Hollywood, with a pool, dance studio, energy-efficient windows, the latest in computers, ceiling-mounted projectors, up-to-date science labs and a sprinkler-cooled artificial turf playing field.

In contrast, at Hollenbeck Middle School, east of downtown, students endure noisy air conditioners, an asphalt playground, an undersized gym, windows painted over to reduce glare and science labs without student work stations. Conditions are more make-do than state-of-the-art.

"We tell these kids that schooling is about their future, and then we put them in spaces that need dramatic change," said Marshall Tuck, a top education advisor for Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. "We need facilities that feel welcoming and are well-kept. What signal are we sending by the actual shape these buildings are in?"

Criticism of the bond focuses on the district's skyrocketing building costs, disagreements over priorities and the haste behind Measure Q itself, whose price tag more than doubled in the final days before the Board of Education placed it on the ballot July 31.

The fifth school bond in 11 years for the Los Angeles Unified School District, Measure Q will compete with other property tax increases on the November ballot.

For L.A. Unified, Measure Q represents a bid for a dependable longer-term funding stream for a $20.3-billion construction and modernization program, the nation's largest, which has so far delivered more than 75,000 classroom seats.

The stakes are clearly high.

Seven district representatives, including school board President Monica Garcia, were on hand this month for a Hollenbeck walk-through with a lone reporter. And because Hollenbeck is among 10 low-performing schools overseen by Villaraigosa, four members of his school-reform team, including Tuck, also took part.

Since 1997, when Los Angeles voters passed the first of four recent school bonds, the mission of the measures has evolved. In the first years, the money was used primarily to repair campuses that were falling apart in a school system that had last passed a bond in 1963. Then, the focus shifted mainly to constructing new schools.