Come this May, Harney County school District No. 3 will be asking voters to approve an $8 million bond for building improvements. At its meeting on Feb. 11, the school board approved Resolution 2020-01, to place the general obligation bond on the ballot. If passed, the bond would provide safe, secure, and accessible facilities, perform deferred maintenance and repairs to existing facilities, consolidate educational spaces with the focus on making existing facilities more efficient, and erect new buildings where needed.

At the start of the meeting, Scott Marshall, with Straightline Architecture, explained that the district began a long-range assessment of the facilities in October 2018. During the process, a community group was organized to discuss the needs of both the district and the community. Based on the findings, it was determined that facility improvements were needed in the district, and a bond committee was assembled to determine how best to approach the improvements. After eight months of work, an approach was finalized, with a total cost of $12 million.

While the total price tag is $12 million, the district was awarded a $4 million grant through the Oregon School Capital Improvement Matching (OSCIM) Program. Marshall stated that the OSCIM grants aren’t guaranteed to be offered each year by the state legislature, so if the matching funds aren’t approved, the grant will go somewhere else, and there may not be another opportunity to receive them.

Marshall reviewed an assessment of each of the buildings and what the bond work would include.

It was determined that the Lincoln building would be the most expensive to fix. Thus, it was recommended that the building be sold or “mothballed,” and the district offices and IT moved to Hines Middle School.

It was determined that Hines Middle School has empty classroom and secondary space, difficult access, doesn’t comply with current ADA standards, and has a backlog of deferred maintenance. The suggested course of action would be to relocate sixth grade to Slater School, and move the seventh and eighth grades to the high school campus. The gym, locker rooms, kitchen, and cafeteria would be maintained for student and community use, and classrooms would be used for the district offices, IT consolidation, and storage. The estimated budget is $300,000.

The estimated budget for improvements at Slater is $2.5 million. They include adding three classrooms and storage space, remodeling the front entry into a secure entry, installing security-access controls at exterior doors, remodeling kitchen spaces and expanding the cafeteria, reconfiguring the front of the school and parking lot for separated bus and parent drop-off locations, remodeling the music room, and performing deferred maintenance throughout the facility.

It was determined that Burns High School is in the best condition, has the lowest replacement cost index, and is considered to be the center of town activity. The estimated budget for improvements at the high school is $7.6 million. The high school is currently at 62 percent capacity, with six classrooms not being used for instruction.

The improvements would provide a new wing for seventh and eighth grade classrooms, repopulate six empty classrooms, remodel the front entry into a secure entry and reconfigure the front office for secure visitor check-in, remodel and expand kitchen space, remodel underutilized library space and re-purpose into a library and student digital resource space, remodel existing locker rooms, upgrade boiler and HVAC systems, and improve music room and cafetorium acoustics. Improvements would also include adding a new construction technology and maintenance shop building, exterior restrooms, concessions, and storage, and a new middle school auxiliary gym. The suggested plan of action also calls for the demolition of the old boiler shed and maintenance shops.

An additional $1.6 million was figured into the overall budget for soft costs and inflation.

Matt Donahue of D.A. Davidson then presented three financial scenarios to the board, for 20-year, 25-year, and 30-year bond repayment plans.

He explained that the shorter the payback time period, the higher the cost of per thousand of assessed value. For instance, with a 20-year bond, residents would pay 77 cents per thousand of assessed value, plus the 57 cents already being assessed, for a total of approximately $1.35 per thousand on their property taxes. A 30-year bond would cost residents an additional $1.04 per thousand of assessed value on property taxes.

(The 57 cents being assessed is from a 20-year, $2.7 million bond approved by voters in 2005.)

To break those figures down, if a home has an assessed value of $150,000, the 20-year bond would cost the homeowner about $115 additional each year.

The board agreed that the 20-year bond would save money in the long run, but would be more of a financial burden on taxpayers.

After some discussion, the board voted to place the 30-year bond on the May ballot.