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School board will try again on renovations By VICKI GUARINO ROGUE RIVER -- The school board is dusting off old plans to repair the district's aging buildings. Board members Monday resumed public discussion of needs, solutions and costs after months of silence on the subject. Voters twice have rejected bond measures that would have financed multi-million-dollar renovations. Rogue River schools Superintendent Charles Hellman said Tuesday that board members want to resume community discussion of the repair issue because problems are only worsening. Also, an opportunity to return to voters is coming up next year. Without additional funds, the district hasn't been able to fix its many building problems. In the past few months, the district has spent some $200,000 from special state allotments on various repairs. But those efforts are only patches, not solutions to the problems, Hellman said. The needs remain as they were in 1997, when voters first rejected a $15.5 million renovation plan. The board subsequently scaled back the proposal to $12.8 million, but voters rejected that offer in 1998. In Monday's board meeting, an audience of about a half-dozen gave mixed reasons for the defeats at the polls. "Everything from `it wasn't enough money,' to `people couldn't afford it, it was too much money,"' Hellman said. Both proposals would have repaired problems at all four district schools, Hellman said. Needed improvements include a new permanent classroom and library at Evans Valley Elementary School, new classrooms and a new gym at the middle school, playground and drainage improvements at Rogue River Elementary and heating and air conditioning at the high school. Evans Valley students had been using the basement as a cafeteria, but fire risk has forced the lunch crowd into the gym. The move limits use of the gym for recreation. Still, one class is held in the basement, Hellman said, and it needs to be relocated. Also, portions of the roofs at both the high school and the middle school are deteriorating to the point where they are difficult and expensive to repair, Hellman said. Bond money also could pay for new space so that special programs for art and computers can be moved out of temporary, portable buildings. Hellman said board members intend to continue the building and bond discussions at coming meetings. One of their first goals is to list all building needs in order of importance, Hellman said. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA