Sitting near a geologic fault, 67-year-old El Cerrito High School is seismically unsafe and slated to be torn down.

Three more schools must be built in Brentwood by 2008 to keep up with a population boom in east Contra Costa.

In San Ramon, workers are breaking ground this summer on a three-story building to replace dilapidated classrooms at California High.

These are just three of the scores of school construction projects in the East Bay waiting for state funding from Proposition 55, a $12.3 billion bond measure on the March 2 ballot.

The proposition is the second half of a record $25.35 billion bond package state lawmakers placed on the 2002 and 2004 ballots, aiming for funds to brace the state's aging and overcrowded school facilities for another generation of students.

Some district officials are worried that the bond may not pass because it shares space on the ballot with a $15 billion bond to finance the state's deficit. While the 2002 state school bond measure passed easily with 59 percent of the vote, this year the state's budget problems seem to have made voters more wary of taking on debt.

Among Republican voters polled this month, 54 percent said they would reject the bonds, though 62 percent of Democrats said they support the bond, said Mark Baldassare, research director for the Public Policy Institute of California, which conducted the poll.

About $8 million from the 2002 school bond helped the Mt. Diablo school district build Delta View Elementary School in Pittsburg. The school will open in the fall with about 350 students. An additional 660 elementary students are expected to move into the area in the next five to seven years, so the district hopes for $8 million from Prop. 55 to build a second new elementary school.

In addition, the Mt. Diablo district is looking for $80 million from the bond to help renovate district schools.

"We will benefit a great deal if Prop. 55 passes," said Dick Nicoll, assistant superintendent.

About $1.4 billion remains from the $13.05 billion bond passed in 2002, and that money is expected to run out before the end of the year.

But opponents say the state cannot afford to take on any more debt while it is suffering a fiscal crisis. They want the state to pay gradually for school construction out of the annual budget instead of issuing bonds, which ultimately double the cost of the work when interest is factored in.

The Legislative Analyst's Office estimates the bonds would cost about $24.7 billion to repay over 30 years with an average annual payment of $823 million.

"Prop. 55 is a bad deal for taxpayers," said Mike Spence, president of the California Republican Assembly, a 15,000-member volunteer political group.

Spence's group also opposes the $15 billion fiscal recovery bond for the state that is on the March 2 ballot.

"At some point the $30 billion is going to sink in," he said.

The Prop. 55 campaign is calling out teachers, parents and grass-roots groups to spread the word that passing the bond would improve school facilities in their communities. Campaign manager Kim Kuwata said he is not taking anything for granted and will run an aggressive campaign.

"Californians have traditionally been very much in favor of helping school kids; this helps school kids," Kuwata said. "

Brentwood is the fastest-growing district in the state, swelling at an annual rate of 15 percent, Superintendent Doug Adams said. About 500 new students already have enrolled in the 6,000-student district during this school year.

At that rate, the district will need two elementary schools and one more middle school by 2008. The district is eligible for $55 million in state matching money to build the schools.

If Prop. 55 does not pass, the district would have to delay construction of two schools and install portables to house for 400 to 500 new middle school students.

Adams worries that the state's fiscal recovery bond will make it harder to persuade voters to pass the bond.

Dan Walden, a trustee in the Walnut Creek school district, plans to campaign for the bond measure.

"It's a challenge we're facing this March," he said. "We hadn't expected this ballot would be so stuffed with initiatives, much less financial issues."

The state bond is "crucial" to the West Contra Costa school district, said Vince Kilmartin, associate superintendent there. The district is eligible for $55 million to help the district renovate or replace 21 schools, including the $97 million replacement of El Cerrito High.

"Our schools average about 50 years of age," he said. "Our systems are all systems built in the 1950s. We are desperately in need of that money to bring our schools up to modern times."

About $10 million to $15 million would come to the San Ramon Valley school district for projects such as the replacement of the poorly designed and well-worn buildings at California High.

The district already has $260 million from Measure A, a local bond measure passed in 2002. The additional state money would allow the district to expand the projects, districts spokesman Terry Koehne said.

"It would certainly be put to good use in our community," he said.

Kindergarten-University Public Education Facilities Bond Act of 2004

PROP. 55

WHAT IT WOULD DO: Allow the state to sell $12.3 billion in bonds to construct and renovate public school buildings

VOTES TO PASS: Majority