Board gets first vote on Eugene bond issue

An aging roof. Restrooms with cracked tiles. Concrete flooring that settled and sank long ago. Classrooms that were modern when a guy named Truman was in the White House.

During an inspection of Roosevelt Middle School’s roof last week, Eugene School District Facilities Department officials Harlan Coats and Steve Howard noticed rotting wood and the blackened sheets of asphalt, and wondered how much longer it will last.

“With people constantly fiddling with it, it might go another three or five years,” said Howard, the district’s mechanical division supervisor.

The roof is 15 to 20 years old, said Coats, preventative maintenance supervisor. Asked how often it should be replaced, he said: “Every 15 to 20 years.”

Like many schools in the district, Roosevelt Middle School needs work. For a cash-strapped school district, though, one that is looking at a $24 million budget shortfall for the 2011-12 school year, finding the money to make the repairs, renovations and upgrades is a challenge.

Although the most interest in tonight’s Eugene School Board meeting stems from the selection of a new superintendent to replace George Russell, the board also will vote on whether to refer a $70 million bond measure to the May 17 ballot. Thursday is the deadline for filing to place measures on the ballot.

Coupled with existing bond loads, the new measure would cost taxpayers about $1.30 per $1,000 assessed valuation — the same amount they are paying now. If voters reject the new bond measure, the cumulative tax rate for district bonding next year would drop by 9 cents to $1.21 per $1,000 assessed valuation.

One concern facing the district is potential taxpayer overload: Voters are likely to be asked to approve a city income tax earmarked for schools that would provide an estimated $12 million for the Eugene School District, mostly to minimize teacher layoffs, and $4.8 million for the Bethel School District.

The Bethel School Board last month voted against placing a $10 million bond measure for school repairs and upgrades on the May ballot because the district didn’t want Bethel voters to get confused with the income tax measure for schools, district spokesman Pat McGillivray said.

“We just thought that it was better to step aside on this right now,” McGillivray said of the proposed bond measure.

In the Eugene School District, the proposed $70 million bond measure actually is a scaled-down version of a $130 million bond initially proposed by Russell last fall. That included $63 million for building a new Roosevelt Middle School (constructed in 1949-50) and also a new elementary school, most likely to replace Howard Elementary.

The lesser bond amount won’t buy a new middle school, but it would pay for about $1.75 million worth of repairs and upgrades at Roosevelt, said Ben Brantley, the district’s construction program manager. If passed, the bond measure would pay for $14.8 million in new roofing alone at 27 other buildings besides Roosevelt, most of them schools, according to a list provided by Brantley.

The proposed bond measure is part of a 24-year facilities plan approved by the school board in 2002 to address the district’s aging facilities. The plan’s first bond was passed in 2002 and provided $116 million for Madison and Cal Young middle schools to be replaced, and the construction of Bertha Holt and Cesar Chavez elementary schools, to replace four elementary schools that closed.

Roosevelt Principal Eric Anderson said he was disappointed to learn that the higher $130 million bond that would have replaced his school has been taken off the table. Roosevelt also was targeted for replacement under the 2002 bond, until the amount of that measure was decreased from an original $143 million.

“It’s definitely needed,” Anderson said of the new bond measure. “The amount of repairs and costs that goes into this building is amazing. Just the upkeep is tremendous on this building.”

Many of the repairs needed at Roosevelt and other schools can’t wait, Facilities Director Jon Lauch said. If the board opts not to place a bond measure on the ballot in May, or voters do not approve it, then the district would have to use money from its already dwindling reserve funds for the repairs, Lauch said.

A bond measure could be placed on the ballot in November instead of May, but there are several disadvantages to doing so, Lauch and other staff members have explained to the school board in recent months.

The district says the earlier election date would result in huge savings for taxpayers based on the availability of $15 million in federally funded Qualified School Construction Bonds supported with federal stimulus money and structured so interest payments are covered by the federal government, not just local taxpayers. That translates into an estimated $23 million cost savings over the life of the bond.

“I think the biggest thing that has brought board members together on this is the $23 million,” Lauch said. “We can save voters $23 million, so that’s a big deal.”

The district already has applied for those funds, which will not be available after the May election, according to the school district.

Other advantages of a May bond measure vs. one in November, the district says, include saving $1 million in annual maintenance costs typically paid from the general fund, and avoiding the need to lay off additional facilities department employees.

“We can’t justify carrying our entire construction program staff without a bond measure,” Lauch said. “That’s kind of a big one for me because we have a strong, confident staff.”