opinion
An Opinion: Reasons to Vote YES on the School Bond
By Scott Laird
I spent a lot of time last week
pondering ways to discuss the Vernonia
School District Bond and encourage lo-
cal voters to support it.
An idea to try and break the
tension during an impassioned national
election year and create something hu-
morous on this page, like a Letterman
style Top 10 list, was quickly scrapped
because raising taxes is not in any way
a laughing matter. I know many of our
citizens see any increase in their month-
ly or annual bills as a serious hardship,
even when that increase is designated to
help education in our community.
Still, I think there are many
good reasons why it is important to vote
yes for this School Bond.
This entire project of moving our
school campus to a safe location, out of
the flood plain, all started with a School
Bond in 2009 that local citizens stepped
up and overwhelmingly approved by a
60% to 40% margin. Now here we are,
seven years later, coming back around,
full circle, and asking the local taxpayers
to finish that original commitment and
step up again to raise the last bit needed
to retire the debt, finish the campus, and
make needed repairs to the Mist School
building.
I know, it’s a big ask.
In case you don’t know the de-
tails about this bond you’re being asked
to approve, here is a brief recap of what
led us to this situation:
The story really starts on De-
cember 3, 2007 when the Vernonia com-
munity was flooded and all three school
buildings were damaged. FEMA told
the School District they would no longer
insure their facilities and offered a $12
million buyout to help the District move
to a safe location. Voters approved a $13
million bond in November of 2009, put-
ting local “skin in the game” and show-
ing potential funders the community
supported the project. With a proposed
$40 million budget, the hard lift now
began - finding the rest of the funding.
Many people got involved and formed
an outreach campaign that secured con-
tributions from a wide range of sources,
including Vernonia alumni, regional
and national corporations, philanthropic
foundations, and several state and fed-
eral agencies. Moving the Vernonia
Schools was named an Oregon Solutions
project and received additional state sup-
port. Local fundraisers also contributed
to the effort.
At this point I have to mention
that this is not the normal way a new
school campus is built. Usually a school
district will raise all the funds needed
before beginning construction. Because
of a strict FEMA timeline to qualify for
the buyout of the old buildings, Vernonia
was forced to begin construction early
and hope they could raise the rest of the
funds. In the end that heroic campaign
came up about $5 million short, and the
District had to borrow that money in or-
der to complete and pay for the construc-
tion. That debt carries a $400,000 pay-
ment each year, which has been paid, up
until now, by continuing fundraising ef-
forts, but those financial resources disap-
peared as the new campus was opened.
The Vernonia flood story, and the new
school campus lost its appeal to funders
and the District still has a $4.1 million
debt that has to be paid off.
Which brings us back to the new
School Bond voters are being asked to
approve this November.
So, instead of a humorous Top
10 List, here is a serious list of reasons
(with a little bit of fun thrown in, be-
cause, geez, hasn’t this election season
already been too serious?) of why you
should vote YES on the Vernonia School
Bond.
Retire the debt – As I mentioned ear-
lier, the District has had this albatross of
debt dragging them down since the new
campus opened in 2012. The District,
its administration, Board of Directors,
teachers, and staff need to get back to
their real jobs of educating our children,
and stop worrying about how to make
that next debt payment. The debt has
been a serious distraction. It’s time to
move on.
Upgrades, repairs and final facilities –
While the debt for the construction of the
new campus is down to $4.1 million, the
District is asking voters to approve $6.8
million in the bond. The debt will be paid
off and then the District has several other
projects they need to undertake. When
funding got tight during the original con-
struction, several cuts were made to the
original plans. With the additional $2.7
million in funding, a fully functional art
facility and a welding/metal shop will be
added to the campus. Playground equip-
ment will be installed at both the Verno-
nia and Mist Schools. The Mist School
will receive some much needed repairs,
including a roof, siding and gutters. A
new football field and track will be con-
structed at the new campus.
Some of you might find this
last item somewhat extravagant, but I
will make one point here. The Vernonia
track team has been practicing on an ex-
tremely poor surface for many years, or
traveling to other schools to practice on a
real track. They are unable to host home
meets at their facility. Even without a
real track the team has produced several
state champions in the last several years,
a truly amazing feat. Which brings me to
my next point...
WE WON THE LOTTERY!!! FREE
MONEY!!! - OK, this is a bit of a
stretch, but not completely. The Ver-
nonia School District was chosen in
a lottery by the State of Oregon and is
guaranteed to receive $2.7 million in
matching funds, IF THE COMMUNITY
PASSES THE BOND. That money can-
not be used to retire debt and must be
used for facility upgrades. So, while it’s
not exactly free money, those matching
funds would allow the District to fully
complete the campus. Vote NO on the
bond and we leave $2.7 million on the
table for some other school district to
use.
It’s about the kids... and the commu-
nity - Writer John Green has a saying
which has been fairly widely circulated
on the internet, which pretty simply, yet
brusquely makes what I feel is an impor-
tant point: “Let me explain why I like to
pay taxes for schools even though I don’t
personally have a kid in school: I don’t
like living in a country with a bunch of
stupid people,” says Green. Educating
our kids makes them better, and it makes
our community better, and is probably
one of the best uses of tax money I can
think of. Think about how much of your
tax money is spent on things you never
see or use? To me, it’s a no-brainer.
It’s payback time – There were many,
continued on page 9
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