School board briefed on bond

Tillamook School District’s board of directors were briefed on the possibilities for a new bond at their February 12 meeting, as the current bond supporting major facilities maintenance is set to be repaid in July 2025.

The board was also updated about work being done to form a foundation to run the new skills center for students from across the county and programs at South Prairie Elementary School, where the meeting was held.

David Williams from Piper Sandler & Co. gave the board an overview of how government bonds work, have been used by the district in the past and the possibility of seeking a new bond later this year or next.

Bonds are loans that are split into smaller pieces and sold to investors to finance projects or purchases for government entities or corporations. General option bonds issued by government entities, like the school district, are guaranteed by tax revenues, property taxes in the district’s case, and must be approved by voters.

Bonds may be used for projects or items that have a usable life of more than one year and the term of borrowing can last for as long as the average weighted life of that which is borrowed for. Bonds cannot be used for routine maintenance.

A new bond for the district would be used for maintenance projects identified in the facilities report recently completed by Soderstrom Architects, who are also working on a long-range facilities plan for the district. The report, which was reviewed by the board in January, showed that it would cost north of $85 million to restore all the district’s buildings to like-new condition, while prioritized mechanical, plumbing and electrical repairs would cost around $14 million.

In Oregon, school districts are allowed to carry up to 7.95% of the real market value of all the property within their bounds as debt. Tillamook School District has around $3.8 billion in property and could legally go up to $306 million in debt.

Currently, the district has around $18.7 million in debt, with $16 million of that dedicated to Public Employee Retirement Systems debt and the rest a $2.7 million balance from the district’s last bond, issued in 2002. The district has refinanced the debt on that bond twice but will be completing its payments in July 2025, leaving it in need of a replacement source of financing for facilities management.

The current bond is supported by a property tax levy of 69 cents per thousand dollars of assessed market value and Williams discussed several scenarios that the district could pursue with a new bond question.

Should the district ask voters to maintain the current levy of 69 cents per thousand dollars of assessed value, it would be able to borrow $22.4 million for a 20-year term or $18.5 million for a 15-year term, according to Williams. If the board instead decided to seek a specific bond amount, they could lower the levy, with Williams saying that a $16 million bond with a 20-year term would result in a 49 cent-per-thousand levy, while a $12 million bond with the same term would result in a 36 cent-per-thousand rate.

Williams said that the district could still complete the process to get a bond question on November’s general election ballot, although they would have to begin the process forthwith. Williams said the board could also delay the question until May 2025’s primary ballot and that the board should consider the other questions on both ballots when making their decision.

Williams shared figures showing that across Oregon, 53% of county bond requests, 56% of school district bond requests and 59% of fire district bond requests were approved.

The new skills center to help each of the county’s three school districts improve their career and technical education programs will be overseen by a foundation according to Superintendent Matthew Ellis. Ellis said that the Tillamook Education Consortium, which has been working on the project, is proposing that the foundation be overseen by a board consisting of five voting members, one representative from each district and two representatives from the business community.

South Prairie Elementary School Principal Eric Gronseth also shared about the school’s art and SMART reading programs.

The art program is taught in conjunction with the Sitka Gallery and gives students the opportunity to create artwork on a regular basis.

The Start Making a Reader Today (SMART) program, is an Oregon-specific initiative that aims to help increase literacy in young students with help from community volunteers. Every Tuesday and Thursday students have the option to read to or be read to by a volunteer for 25 minutes.

Gronseth said that the volunteers do not tutor the students on reading but instead share their love of reading and that the program also allows students to take two books home each month. Community members interested in participating in the program for an hour and a half weekly can contact the front office at South Prairie.