Split bond election results hint at facilities challenge facing many Oregon school districts

Aging and inadequate school facilities is a brewing Oregon crisis. School districts must pass local bonds to pay for major repairs or new buildings, but the ability to pass bonds and the tax base for supporting them is significantly uneven across the state.

In an off-year election, only four districts put a bond on Tuesday's ballot, with three of them mostly in Clackamas County. West-Linn Wilsonville and Lake Oswego school districts appeared to have won in partial returns Wednesday morning. Oregon Trail and Athena-Weston school districts appeared to have lost.

Lake Oswego was winning easily, with more than 70% approval. Lake Oswego proposed a $245 million bond that would replace a bond passed in 2000. The district also passed bonds as recently as 2017 and 2021 as part of a long-term plan.

This year's bond will be used largely to replace its two oldest elementary schools, both built in the 1940s. The district determined it was cheaper to replace the buildings than to make the repairs and upgrades needed. Lake Oswego will also add classrooms at its two high schools and make health, safety and security improvements across the district.

West Linn-Wilsonville has a closer race, with just over 52% in partial returns Wednesday. West Linn-Wilsonville, which sought $190 million, was also replacing a retiring bond. It most recently passed a $207 million bond in 2019 that paid for a new school. This bond would pay for a laundry list of facility projects at all 16 schools that ranged from replacing furniture to replacing roofs.

West Linn-Wilsonville will also receive a $6.1 million Oregon School Capital Improvement Matching grant from the state. The OSCIM grants have helped sweeten the bond pitches for districts, especially smaller ones where the grant can as much as double their bond amount.

The Athena-Weston School District was seeking a $15.2 million bond with a $10.2 million OSCIM grant attached. The small district northeast of Pendleton was making plans for new buildings and remodeling so it could reconfigure its district to try to more efficiently divide the students between the nearby towns of Athena and Weston.

Athena-Weston passed a bond in 2016, and this bond was aimed to replace that one as it dropped off the tax rolls in 2026. About 56% of voters said no thanks.

Oregon Trail is a district of a little over 4,000 students in Sandy to the east of Portland. Oregon Trail last passed a bond in 2008 to build Sandy High School. This time Oregon Trail was asking for $172 million with a $6.1 million OSCIM grant. The bond would have paid for projects at all seven schools, such as new roofs, replacing portable classrooms with permanent structures and upgrading cafeterias, gyms, fields and playgrounds.

Nearly three-quarters of voters said no.

- Jake Arnold, [email protected]