In spring 2000, voters in the Oceanside Unified School District approved Proposition G by nearly 70 percent, authorizing up to $125 million to modernize school buildings and classrooms and to build new schools to ease overcrowding. The money is generated by sale of general obligation bonds secured by increased property taxes.

Those of us who benefit from the local property owners' sacrifices are grateful. Overcrowding is being eased, schools are being fixed and property values are rising.

The board of education promised taxpayers that only essential repairs, upgrades and new schools would be considered. Last week, the board requested an update on progress, expenditures and enrollment projections. The progress in Oceanside made possible by the bond is significant, but more than half of our projects still need to be completed.

The new buildings at schools such as Oceanside High's three-story science and technology building and the new Nichols Elementary are the result. Less visible are the remodeling improvements to a score of schools like Laurel and South Oceanside Elementary, both over 40 years old. Over the next 10 years almost every school will see improvements made and at least one more elementary and middle school will be built. For three years the board-appointed Bond Oversight Committee, made up of local citizens not employed by the school district, has supervised the use of every bond dollar.

Matching construction funds from the state school construction bond approved by voters three years ago matched state dollars with Oceanside's local bond dollars. This was extremely attractive to local voters. We have already seen the benefit of those matching funds in Oceanside High and Laurel and Nichols elementary schools.

Oceanside's plans for the bond construction include the state's matching funds, but that money is almost gone. Proposition 55, on the March 2 ballot, would restore that fund and continue to match local taxpayers' dollars in Oceanside.

Without state matching funds from Prop. 55, progress on Oceanside's schools will be limited to what local bond dollars can buy. If Prop. 55 passes, the district will be able to fix and build all schools considered essential by the Bond Oversight Committee and the board of education.

When the Legislature placed Prop. 55 on the March 2 ballot more than a year ago, no one anticipated there would be other important state bond measures on the ballot: Propositions 56, 57 and 58, all part of the governor's plan to fix the state's budget mess.

We all have some tough decisions to make on March 2. Prop. 55 will bring state tax dollars back to Oceanside to match our local bond dollars.

The board of education and I hope that you are pleased and excited with the progress the Oceanside Unified School District has made. We urge you to vote on March 2. We thank you for your support in the past, and we ask for your continued support of schools, students and our community by voting yes on Prop. 55.

Adrianne Hakes is president of the Oceanside Unified School District Board of Trustees.