News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Sisters schools could get more than $240,000 to fix roofs, fund technology infrastructure, or to pay off debts - without increasing taxes - if voters pass Measure 52 in the current vote-by-mail election.
The ballot measure would allow the state to issue up to $150 million in lottery-backed revenue bonds from 1997 through 1999 to finance public school projects.
The money would be distributed on a per-student basis at about $240 per student.
The Sisters School Board has unanimously endorsed the measure, which requires that bond debt be repaid through Education Endowment Fund earnings and lottery proceeds not earmarked for other uses.
"It's still not exactly clear when we can get the cash," schools superintendent Steve Swisher said. "Sometime in spring."
The bond money can be used for construction and improvement of facilities, technology purchases, textbooks and vehicles, much like a one-time grant the schools received in this budget year.
But Measure 52 funds can also be used to pay off debt or invested in a separate account and held to fund future projects.
Swisher said the Sisters School District will analyze whether or not to use a large portion of the money to pay off debt.
According to Swisher, the district's major debt is about $119,000 remaining on the loan for the land purchase of the high school site. Swisher said the district also owes about $10,000 on a bus, $4,000 to $5,000 on computers and $30,000 in miscellaneous debt.
Depending on interest rates and payment structures, the district could use about half of the lottery bond money for debt payment.
"It may be advantageous to us not to pay off the debt," Swisher observed.
Priorities for spending in Sisters schools, according to Swisher, include: roof repairs, completing technology infrastructure with computer hardware and phone lines, and textbook purchases.
The only alarm sounded by Swisher regarding the ballot measure is that it doesn't tackle the issue of establishing stable school funding.
"As citizens of the state, we may lull ourselves into thinking, gee, we've fixed it with this one-time bond," Swisher said.
But Swisher said he is optimistic that Oregon is moving toward stable funding for schools. He noted that recent efforts to quantify the costs of educating students are a big step in the right direction.
"It's the first time the conversation has been even close to that level," he said.
Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.
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