School funding measures struggle to win over Oregon voters

School districts and community colleges across Oregon who were hoping transfer bonds to pay for new and modernized facilities their plans were mostly ruined on election day, with a few notable exceptions.

Two school districts that pushed for fees to support teachers and other classroom essentials have fared better, but a third district’s levy appears destined to fail.

In the Tigard-Tualatin School District, with nearly 11,700 students, overwhelming majority of voters supported the renewal of the local option levy, which would generate $67 million over the next five years. And voters in the 175-student Falls City School District in rural Polk County appeared to agree to a levy that would raise about $750,000 over the next five years to pay for extracurricular activities and math and literacy support.

However, voters in the 2,800 student Parkrose School District in eastern Multnomah County appeared poised to reject a levy to pay for 28 teaching positions, although the race was still too close to call Wednesday afternoon.

The picture was much bleaker for most Oregon schools and colleges, which were seeking voter support to help renovate and modernize old buildings or build new ones. Of the nine such measures on the ballot statewide, five appear to have failed, three remain too close to call and only one appears to have passed.

The supposed success story is voters’ apparent renewal of Columbia Gorge Community College’s current bond rate of 27 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value to pay for security upgrades, classroom and laboratory upgrades, and other projects. Its passage came largely thanks to strong support from voters in Hood River County, which, according to early results, weakened the influence of the nearly 54% of voters in neighboring Wasco County who voted against it.

The disparate results of school funding measures on the November ballot will widen the gap between the haves and have-nots in a state where school districts and community colleges receive virtually no state funding for schools, said David Valenzuela, superintendent of the 4,500-student school. Three Rivers School District in Josephine County.

In his district, voters overwhelmingly rejected a bond request that would have paid for safety upgrades and new roofs at schools throughout the sprawling district that stretches across the upper Rogue Valley. It was the second time in six months that the county tried and failed to post bail. Failure means he will lose $6 million in state matching funds that were contingent on voter approval of the bond.

“They asked me what our Plan B is,” Valenzuela said in an interview Wednesday. “We don’t necessarily have one. Last week we had significant rainy weather causing leaks across the county at many schools. We will pursue leaks as best we can and come back after some time when people feel better, I think.”

Oregon offers a modest grant program to help school districts cover maintenance and construction costs. The program began in 2015 and in most cases reaches $6 million per county. Before this, the state did not give any money at all to help districts build new schools or maintain old ones. Oregon is one of the few a dozen states what gives the districts relatively little or no help paying for school construction, according to the nonprofit Education Commission of the States.

Instead the state school funding formula Allocates approximately the same amount of money per student to each district to cover operating costs, including salaries and benefits as well as curriculum, materials, utilities and transportation. But using that funding to pay for capital improvements or construction requires such big cuts in other areas that they often aren’t fully offset, school officials say.

The result is a clear gap in building quality, including the availability of temperature-controlled fresh air, modern security systems, natural lighting and modern technology, among Oregon’s 197 school districts. Research suggest that improved school environments, especially air quality, can improve student achievement.

“The way state school fund funds are allocated to address infrastructure needs is insufficient,” Valenzuela said. “He can’t support what we have.”

Unless there is a change in voters’ willingness to support the school system or a change in the state’s funding structure, Three Rivers could be forced to close or consolidate schools, sending some children on buses dozens of miles from home to attend school, he said. result.

Besides Three Rivers, other school districts and community colleges whose bond bids failed Tuesday included Pine Eagle School District in Baker County, Rogue Community College in southwest Oregon, Central School District in Polk and Marion counties and Municipal Chemeketa College in Salem.

The three bond races remain too close to call. The Clackamas Community College bond narrowly trailed in Tuesday’s preliminary vote count, and the Redmond School District bond barely passed. The bond for school facility upgrades in Oregon City was nearly pegged at 50.2% to 49.8%, with roughly 30% of Clackamas County ballots still to be counted.

Jeremy Wright, a political consultant who worked on all three bond campaigns, said Wednesday he remains optimistic that all three will pass once more votes are counted and reported. Historically, he said, voters who return their ballots closer to the deadline are likely to be either younger, renters or parents, who tend to be more supportive of schools and tax measures.

In Redmond, most of the remaining votes may come from the Crooked River Ranch community in unincorporated Jefferson County, home to tax-sloppy retirees, but both Wright and a Redmond school district spokesman said it was unclear whether there were enough votes left there to swing support in Deschutes County.

The Oregon Department of Education recently began using $5 million grant the federal government to conduct a full assessment of 4,810 school buildings across the state, a process expected to be completed in early 2027.

The goal is to better understand the comparative condition of school buildings and ultimately “help the state allocate the resources it provides to school facilities,” Adam Crane, facilities assessment administrator for the Oregon Department of Education, previously told The Oregonian. /OregonLive.

— Julia Silverman covers K-12 education for The Oregonian/OregonLive. Contact her at [email protected].