By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews
The Lincoln County School District will ask voters in May to approve a $73 million building bond that replaces one set to expire next year.
The district’s five-member board voted 4-0 last week to put the measure on the May ballot after a year of seeking community thoughts on its buildings, conferring with staff, hiring outside facility experts, polling likely voters, and compiling a long list of projects.
Board member Sentilia McKinley of Waldport did not attend the meeting in Toledo.
Half of the bond would pay for all types of upgrades, repairs and maintenance of all its buildings. Projects would focus on improving learning spaces, increase school security and accessibility, and modernize plumbing, air systems and technology.
The big ticket items – and the lure for many – would be the addition of 300-seat performance auditoriums and related spaces at Waldport, Newport and Toledo high schools. Those are estimated to cost $10 million each and intended to increase student interest in artistic activities but would also be available for community performances and events.
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 $73 million bond would be for 15 years — an amount and length that would replace the current $63 million bond approved in 2011 – and if passed would not increase property taxes.
The current bond passed 14 years ago by a nearly 60 percent to 40 percent margin.
The new bond is expected to carry a 65 cent tax rate – the same as the current one – and would cost the owner of property assessed at $300,000 approximately $195 a year.
Replacing an about-to-expire bond with a new one without raising taxes is the same idea that Oregon Coast Community College used last May to help win passage of a $33 million bond to build a trades education center.
If approved, the district would also apply to the state for a $6 million state building grant to help pay for projects.
“This is a super important decision for us,” school board chair Peter Vince of Toledo said before the board approved sending a bond resolution to voters. “We have spent a lot of time the past year understanding the district’s needs and for adding to facilities and upgrading the facilities we have so they can remain available to our students for the next 40-60 years.”
“… this is a legacy contribution to our community,” he said.
Two months to campaign
But the supporters of the bond have to organize quickly to get a campaign up and running.
The election is May 20, but ballots are mailed to voters on April 30 – giving supporters just the months of March and April to fundraise and campaign. Although there are parent and sports booster organizations at each school, there is no active political action committee ready to run a countywide effort.
Under state law, the district and its employees can explain the bond measure in neutral terms – and there is a lot of information on the district website about it — but employees can’t advocate for it. But board members, who are elected, can campaign for it.
A public opinion poll in November of 400 voters commissioned by the district showed good support for the 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 the three auditoriums.
Vince told YachatsNews previously that he was encouraged by the polling results and that voters have a history of supporting school projects “… but we still have a large segment of voters who don’t know the state of our schools.”
-
To see a list of likely projects from the bond, go here
While bonds cannot be used for operating funds, I support a levy to spend $10 million each on: (1) additional teachers to decrease class size, particularly for lower grades for the life of the levy (2) making sure that whatever science labs at each school currently exist were evaluated for safety (i.e., good ventilation), up to date lab equipment; and (3) making sure both students w/IEPs and going for IB degrees receive all the assistance they need, including hiring additional staff.
I’ve never lived in a school district like Lincoln County’s that’s somehow just had to have more new school or school-related structures then any other school I attended, including schools in MI, NY, and for 6 months a school in Great Britain, before I graduated from high school. The students in 3 of them scored higher on whatever skills tests, state wide subject testing (NY) then the schools in Lincoln county, possibly because of the large number of students in Lincoln County who fall into the state’s definition of homeless. A friend attended a state supported high school specializing in math/sciences and it had a dorm for students who lived more then “x” miles away, so that any qualifying student could attend that school. If the LCSD just has to build new structure, perhaps it should consider using the money to build a small dorms (w/access to a cafeteria) for high school students at the Waldport, Lincoln City and Newport high schools so that more students have a stable place to live, enough food, and focus on their school work and whatever school activities (band, theater, art, etc) perhaps a part-time job. Funding would include some adult supervision/support in the dorm. That might bring up test scores and the graduation rate, and provide some students with a greater sense of security, than an auditorium.
The bond measure system is unfair as it targets property taxes (indirectly people on fixed incomes). It’s time to re-think how we raise money for public education services. It Oregon had a public bank modeled after South Dakota’s BND that would subtract Wall St bond holders from making profits on bond measures and empower the state to control the “cost of borrowing”. Here’s a state group working on the answer.
https://oregonpublicbanking.com/faq/
I suggested this to Dick Anderson during a campaign stop last year.
I will be voting No on any and all bonds until Oregon can get its spending under control.
To understand the federal funding received by Oregon public schools from 2020 to 2024, consider the following points:
Oregon received approximately $1.1 billion in federal COVID-19 relief funds for education.
The Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) Fund allocated around $800 million to Oregon schools.
Additional federal funding included Title I and special education grants, totaling several hundred million dollars.
To understand the funding allocated to Oregon public schools from 2020 to 2024, consider the following points:
Oregon’s state budget for education has seen fluctuations during this period.
Approximately $9 billion was allocated for K-12 education in the 2021-2023 biennium.
The 2023-2025 budget proposed an increase to around $10 billion for public schools.