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As schools fill and crumble, leaders worry Photo by Bob Pennell Worker Beatrice Tallant puts the final polish on the floors of Ashland High School's Mountain Avenue theater complex Friday afternoon. The towering building is a symbol of when it was a little simpler to pass school bond measures. C.P. bond defeat on minds of other superintendents BY VICKI GUARINO As the curtain rises this week on Ashland High School's $8 million theater and arts center, school administrators across the county are wondering when -- and if -- they'll open another new school building. The Central Point School District's failure last week to muster voter support for school construction might not be strictly a Central Point problem, some worry. The fact is, no local school district has passed a bond measure for capital improvements since voters statewide upped the voting ante. "Central Point may be sending a message about how difficult it will be for any of us," says Medford schools superintendent Steve Wisely. Under the new rules of the funding game, bond measures must win by a so-called double, or super majority -- 50 percent voter turnout and a majority of `yes' votes -- or the balloting must occur in a general election. By waiting for a general election, schools are competing -- as Central Point was on Tuesday -- with other money issues, proposed by other public boards also seeking to sidestep the double majority hurdle. Additionally, general elections coincide with the delivery of property tax bills. Property tax payments are due in a week. Issues of competing measures and double majorities were not a concern back when Ashland voters approved the high school's Mountain Avenue complex. They passed a $21 million bond measure in March 1996 -- eight months before Oregon voters passed the restrictions on bond votes. With the bond money, Ashland razed a cramped, deteriorating theater building and erected in its place a towering, glass-walled arts center and student commons. The public will be ushered through community's newest performing arts space during a ribbon-cutting celebration at 7:30 p.m Tuesday. Bond money also is paying for an addition at Ashland's crowded middle school and renovations at Briscoe Elementary School. The bond is to be paid back over 10 years. It is the first phase of what Ashland school officials view as a 50-year installment plan to keep buildings adequate and up to date. "For the short term," says Superintendent John Daggett, "we're in pretty good shape." The projects completed this year will create some badly needed space for growth. By working in 10-year bond funding increments, Daggett says, the district retains flexibility to respond to unforeseen growth and other demands. By taking needs step by step, taxpayers also are spared the cost of suddenly huge tax bills. Medford, for the short term, also is in pretty good shape. Its capital improvement plan is running a year ahead of Ashland's schedule. Voters in 1995 passed a $35 million bond measure for a districtwide overhaul similar to the one proposed in Central Point. Medford built one new elementary school -- 550-student Abraham Lincoln in northeast Medford -- and expanded and largely rebuilt the town's two middle schools. Students moved into the new facilities last fall. During Medford's bond campaign, Wisely told voters the construction they were being asked to pay for would hold the district for about five years. But this year, enrollment is reaching capacity at North Medford High School. Many homes are going up in South Medford High School's enrollment territory. So now, Wisely says, "We're going to have to start talking about where we are going in 2000." That discussion also is going on elsewhere. Crowded classrooms and antiquated school buildings are a growing concern from Phoenix to Rogue River. "We are absolutely in need of more facilities," says Phoenix-Talent Superintendent Dave Willard. Lagging home construction coupled with a building moratorium in part of the district have given school officials some extra time, Willard says. And this year's windfall of lottery funds is paying for some additional class space at Talent Middle School, where teachers have been sharing rooms. Despite those allowances, space is scarce. "We may well be looking at a bond measure in the next year," Willard predicted. As an alternative, the Phoenix-Talent School Board has discussed drastically cutting summer vacation in favor of year-round schooling to combat the crowds. "The board has discussed the concept," Willard says. "It's not very popular, but we're at least talking about it." Joining Phoenix-Talent at the ballot box in 1999 may well be Rogue River. Like Central Point, Rogue River officials saw their bond measure defeated twice at the polls. The last defeat came in May, when voters turned down a $12.8 million request. The margin of the defeat was wider than it had been a year earlier, when Rogue River proposed a $15.5 million bond. Unlike Central Point, crowding wasn't the problem in Rogue River, says Superintendent Charles Hellman; although buildings are essentially full, the problem is aging facilities that don't meet health and safety standards. Conditions are only getting worse. Hellman says he expects the Rogue River School Board to resume bond measure discussions in a couple of months. In the sprawling Eagle Point district, with schools in four communities, growth and aging buildings are getting to be a concern everywhere. Superintendent Ted Adams worries that if residents and school personnel don't start planning soon, "we'll be in the same position Central Point is now." Central Point has two schools that are about 90 years old; Eagle Point has one that is about 80. The Eagle Point district last financed a school -- the high school -- some 25 years ago. Since then, the district has accommodated growth by moving in modular classrooms. Several schools need to be renovated to make them current with technological and other educational developments, and to meet basic health and safety standards, Adams says. A committee that has been looking at district building needs is expected to list a year 2000 bond measure as its No.1 recommendation to the school board. Central Point officials also may decide to wait until the 2000 general election to try for a third time to get a bond approved. Although the construction measure passed once, last May, it failed then to make the double majority requirement. Last week, the $36.7 million measure simply went down, by fewer than 200 votes. Meanwhile, the school board is likely to consider stopgap measures including redrawing school enrollment boundaries, enacting split shifts and longer school days to stretch building capacities. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1998, Medford, Oregon USA