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School districts seek building upgrades Mail Tribune / Steve Johnson Chris Cochran and his classmates do their work elbow-to-elbow in Dawn Johnston�s third-grade class at Little Butte Elementary School in Eagle Point. Johnston�s classroom is housed in a portable building behind the school. Eagle Point is one of four school districts seeking bond measures in the September and November elections to replace or repair aging, crowded buildings. Overcrowding, decades of use create the need for improvements By Vicki Guarino EAGLE POINT � As students start hitting the books, their parents and community leaders are hitting the campaign trail, stumping for some $85 million in bond measures this fall. Central Point School District voters already have ballots in their hands for that district�s $29.8 million school building plan. The money would rebuild and replace 90-year-old schools and enlarge an overcrowded high school. Central Point isn�t alone in its outmoded buildings and need for voter support of building improvements. It just happens to be the first district to the polls. Coming in November are school bond votes in Eagle Point, Phoenix-Talent and Rogue River. Taken together, the plans of the four districts make up the most significant school construction effort in Southern Oregon in a decade or two. While their communities have grown with miles of new homes, public school systems have made do with a scattering of classrooms and renovations. Tight money and the need to pour resources into the state curriculum reforms of the 1990s even further aggravated school building woes by forcing delays of some major maintenance. Finally, the crush of crowding classrooms and aging buildings couldn�t be ignored, says one bond campaigner, Eagle Point�s Jeri Marlia. She�s a fifth-grade classroom aide at 1920s-era Little Butte Elementary School. Her husband teaches at Little Butte, and their two sons attend school there. "I was working in the classroom one day,�� Marlia recalls from a couple of years back. "We had 28 kids. It was winter, cold and raining, and I�m sitting there watching the roof leaking.�� It was raining in her husband�s class, her sons� classes, just about everywhere. Marlia already knew that just across the street, at the junior high, the gym has to be evacuated during snowfalls of 4 inches and winds of 40 miles per hour. The World War II-era building, moved from the army�s Camp White, can�t be made safe, engineers have concluded. And down the street, youngsters are crammed into aged portable buildings that are several hundred square feet smaller than national school guidelines recommend. Besides, fire inspectors have complained that the buildings are old and unsafe, and should be scrapped. Marlia started wondering what else was wrong in district schools. Soon she found herself in the middle of a 22-member committee examining problems from Trail, where the 1936 Elk Trail School needed ventilation and electric upgrades, to White City, where even the district�s newest school � 22-year-old Mountain View � needs some work. The committee went on to outline the Eagle Point School District�s largest building plan since Mountain View Elementary School was built. Meanwhile, other community groups were conducting similar surveys in the Phoenix-Talent and Rogue River school districts. The Phoenix-Talent committee produced that district�s largest building plan since major expansion and renovation was undertaken at Phoenix High School and Talent Middle School in 1986. Now, the district proposes repairs and upgrades at all five schools. Enrollment has been stagnant for the last couple of years, but some schools have been full and are struggling with overcrowding. Cramped conditions have begun to erode the quality of education, the committee learned. Some programs and classes can�t be offered to Phoenix-Talent students � not because of a lack of money for teachers and supplies, but because of a lack of space. In Rogue River, voters have rejected larger and more elaborate building improvement plans, so a citizens� panel decided to go for the basics. The group targeted for repair the most serious problems at each of the district�s four schools. The plan abandons proposed construction of a new middle school. With some work, the committee agreed, Rogue River Middle School could be made serviceable. A $1.86 million share of the bond would add classrooms, and renovate the media center and cafeteria, plus address other problems. Considering the Central Point vote now underway and the prospects for bond measures in November, Marlia hopes all the schools win construction funding. "You can see it throughout this valley," she says. "These communities have grown so much with these old buildings. I hope all the bond measures pass � what a nice message that would be for kids." Central Point is voting now Voters in the Central Point School District have just a week to file ballots for the district�s $29.8 million bond measure, and non-voters have about a month to register to vote in the November general election. In this month�s special election, not all communities in the county have a measure on the ballot. Where there are measures, however, the rate of return has been low. Jackson County Clerk Kathy Beckett estimated that only 6 percent of ballots had been returned by the end of last week. Ballots must be returned by Sept. 19. The low return means proponents of the Central Point School District bond have a long way to go. In this election, at least 50 percent of voters must participate for the measure to pass. Ballots can be mailed, delivered to the county courthouse, or dropped off at any Central Point district school. The schools are not official polling locations, but volunteers check drop boxes daily and bring ballots to the courthouse. Unregistered voters may participate in the coming general election by registering no later than Oct. 17. A voter registration form is printed in the blue pages of the telephone book. Forms also are available at post offices and many schools, as well as the county courthouse. Obituaries | Sports | Business | Classifieds | Tempo | Prime Times | So Oregon Sites | Outdoor Journal | Subscribe | Contact | Movies | Advertise | Real Estate Showcase | Archive | Editorials | Letters to the editor | Religion | Wake-up Call | NIE | Cyber Chef | Job Network | So Oregon Weather | WSJ Northwest | Forums | AP Wire | AP Money | F.A.Q. | Awards Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. The Community Newspaper Subsidiary of Dow Jones & Co, Inc Copyright �The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA