School board ponders election response

Sisters area residents on November 7 rejected by a 50-47 percent vote-tally the $22 million bond for the construction of a new high school.

Less than a week later, the five-member District 6 Sisters School Board began brainstorming about whether to ask voters to reconsider.

The construction of a new high school would allow middle school students to move from an aging downtown facility to the current high school.

Discussions at the November 13 meeting focused on how best to go back to voters, but left details of any new bond, and its date, to be decided at a future workshop.

Board chairman Bill Reed emphasized to The Nugget that no decision has been made.

"It's too early to make any decision," he said. "What we need to do is get together as a board. The board wants to step back, take a deep breath and look at our options."

Reed acknowledged that doing nothing was an unlikely scenario.

"Circumstances in the district would have to change pretty drastically," he said. "We'd have to figure out a way to take care of the problems at the middle school. We would also have to have a major enrollment decrease at the middle school."

That observation reflected statements by board member Glen Lasken at the school board meeting. Lasken said the school board had unfinished business at the middle school.

"The structural problems at the middle school and the crowding issues brought on by increasing enrollment in middle and high school grades haven't changed," Lasken said.

Lasken noted that the earliest opportunity to fix the problems would be the March 13 ballot, with a January 11 filing deadline.

"It is crucial we act on this issue because -- sooner or later -- it must be done," Lasken said.

What, exactly, is to be done remains to be decided. The board could choose to wait for a time before offering a new bond proposal, offer a different bond package to voters, or try to convince voters to pass the same bond package.

"Ultimately, there may not be any option other than to go for a bond," Reed told The Nugget.

Vice-chair Heather Wester noted that Sisters did pretty well in the election in comparison to other districts seeking tax dollars.

Board members gave significant weight to the fact that Sisters residents had approved the first half of the board's ballot requests, a four-year local option levy. The 8 percent passage margin of the levy, 53 to 45 percent, visibly buoyed the board.

"Eighteen school levies failed on this ballot state-wide...Sisters was among only three (levies) that passed," Wester said.

She also noted that the schools may have dodged a bullet with the defeat of measures that would have significantly cut into state revenues.

"Lets also be thankful the tax reform measures failed. If they had passed, it would have murdered us," she said. "Sisters residents are -- and I think will continue to be -- supportive of their schools."

In examining why the bond failed, members conjectured that the sheer number of ballot measures in November, 26 of them, may have played a significant role. However, the board was not content to reach a final decision without some hard facts.

Board members examined how to gather information upon which to base a successful strategy. Member Jeff Smith, a university professor who commutes weekly to his campus in California, volunteered to prepare a questionnaire (at his expense) to sound voters and determine their reasons for having opposed the bond.

Another member suggested asking high school students to staff information tables in heavily used public areas, such as the post office and the supermarket, from which to conduct oral surveys of residents.

Phone surveys were rejected out of hand. Members felt the heavy canvassing that occurred prior to the last election may have exhausted voters. Finally, the board encouraged citizens to voice their suggestions or criticisms by contacting them in person, or by mail through the district office.

The board plans a workshop at School Superintendent Steve Swisher's home, 69339 Ox Yoke in Tollgate at 6 p.m., Monday, November 27. Board members will discuss election results and involve in the discussions the superintendent, who was seriously injured in an automobile crash in September (see related story, page 1).

The next regular board meeting is December 11.