Lincoln County school officials refining list of possible bond projects before board decision next month

By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews

A public opinion poll commissioned by the Lincoln County School District shows good support for a potential $73 million bond after respondents were told that the money would be used to update and protect buildings, improve technology and safety, install all-weather fields and playgrounds and build auditoriums at three high schools.

The poll was based on 400 telephone interviews conducted in late November by Patinkin Research Strategies and has a margin of error of 4.9 percent, according to a presentation to the school board last month.

While overall support for a bond was just 46 percent when researchers provided little to no information about what it would do, support jumped nine percentage points to 55 percent once pollsters walked respondents through what the bond might pay for.

The school board was originally planning to decide at its meeting Tuesday, Jan. 14 whether to go forward with a bond election in May, determine how much it might be and how long it would last. But it has now pushed that decision back to a February meeting – meaning it will have a little more than two months to explain the bond to voters and campaign for it.

Through months of discussions, the board has focused on a $73 million bond over 15 years – an amount and length that would replace a current bond without an increase in property taxes.

The potential new bond would replace one expiring in 2026 that voters passed in 2011 by a 59.5 percent to 40.5 percent margin.

School board chair Peter Vince of Toledo said the poll results were encouraging, but that the board and district administrators have yet to fully examine them.

“I’m encouraged by the polling results,” he told YachatsNews. “I’m optimistic. Lincoln County has a history of supporting schools … but we still have a large segment of voters who don’t know the state of our schools.”

And that’s one of the issues facing the school board if it decides to go to the May ballot. Although it has booster organizations at each school, it has no active political action committee ready to run a countywide campaign.

Under state law, school employees can explain the bond measure but can’t advocate for it. But board members, who are elected, can campaign for it.

The bond basics

Voter-approved bonds can be used for large-cost projects, such as new construction, purchasing property or other assets, remodeling, large maintenance or repair projects, furnishing, equipping buildings, technology upgrades, curriculum, and classroom improvements. A bond cannot be used for operating costs, salaries, retirement benefits or other expenses.

The bond – plus a potential $6 million state grant – would replace the $63 million bond approved in 2011. Board members and administrators are trying to balance the cost of new projects to keep the current tax rate — 65 cents per $1,000 assessed property value – so that property owners would not see an increase in their 2026 bills.

The 65 cent tax rate – the current or possible new one – costs the owner of property assessed at $300,000 approximately $195 a year. While the board is pondering the length of the proposed bond, most of its scenarios has it lasting 15 years – the same as the current, expiring one.

That’s the same idea – a replacement bond to replace an expiring one — that Oregon Coast Community College used in May to help win passage of a $33 million bond to build a trades education center.

District leaders have been studying plans for a bond for more than a year, starting with a building-by-building walk-through with principals and surveying parents and the community. It also hired an architectural consulting firm for an outside look and to help refine projects and create a three-tiered project list that contains dozens of projects.

While the district needs some type of upgrades, repairs and maintenance at almost all its buildings, it does not need new schools because of slowly declining enrollment. While schools have adequate classroom space, demographic and architectural consultants told the district there is lot that can be done to improve learning spaces, increase school security and accessibility, and modernize plumbing, air systems and technology.

Some of the smaller or more urgent projects on the bond list are being done – or can be done – with $1.1 million the district has in its building fund, said Vince. Examples of those include the recent improvements to special education classrooms at Taft 7-12 and restroom remodeling at Newport and Waldport high schools.

Board members and administrators hope the addition of three 300-seat performance auditoriums at Waldport, Newport and Toledo high schools will be the big, visible addition to entice voters to embrace the bond.

Vince said the district’s year-long facility planning process has been thorough, thoughtful – and mindful of taxpayers.

“I certainly do not want any increase in taxation and I don’t think voters would either,” he said.

“… we’re trying to get all the best possible information we can,” Vince told YachatsNews. “It’s not pie-in-the-sky stuff. I think we’re staying in our lane. We’re aiming for facilities that meet the needs of Lincoln County for the next 50 years.”