District spends $1.7 million plus to update schools

Last updated Aug 22, 2007 12:0pm0

Students at Sisters elementary and middle schools will start the school year on September 4 with some changes to their buildings. Almost $1.7 million has been spent over the summer on improvements.

In May the Sisters School District issued $2.1 million in 15-year full faith and credit obligations to fund these projects. That bond issue has been controversial (see related story, page 14). However, the work itself has passed without much notice.

The vast majority of work and money is being poured into the elementary school. Approximately $1.4 million is being spent there.

A two-room modular with one restroom is in place and will be ready for students on the first day of school. Sited behind the school at the east end of the school grounds, the new facility is costing the district approximately $126,000.

The school also has a new roof with a 20-year warranty.

"I'm hoping we're going to be $20,000 under (budget)," said Leland Bliss, the district's facilities supervisor, noting that $297,500 was budgeted for replacing the pitched sections of the school's roof.

One glitch was found during the roof installation that is setting the district back an additional $60,000. An excessive amount of insulation was found between the roof and the ceiling in the four-room area that Bliss calls the A-plus wing.

"We had to take some (insulation) out. There was no cross ventilation..., so inadequate ventilation builds up condensation," Bliss said. The project also included replacing ceiling tiles, cleaning surfaces and removing "...anything that had any environmental type hazard or concern...."

Lighting throughout the building has been upgraded for a cost of $243,800. The inefficient T12 fixtures have been retrofitted with more efficient T8 and T5 fixtures. The old R-type metal halide lights in the gym have been replaced with new T5s.

Emergency and exit lights have also been added throughout the school in case of a power outage, and motion sensors have been installed in the gym and in all classrooms.

In the gym lights come on individually as motion is detected.

"So if somebody just needed to walk in and get something ... instead of the whole gym lighting up, it would just light up that one area. Once you get a room full of kids, they're going to think it's a great game to go turn them all on," Bliss said.

He hopes energy savings will between "...25 and 75 percent."

The school also has a new HVAC system complete with digital controls at a cost of a little more than $517,000.

The digital controls "...will allow us to change a constant temperature in the whole building. If we have one room that's warmer than the others, we can go in and change the set points on that one room. We can change the time of day we want fresh air to be introduced into the rooms. The system detects carbon dioxide .... and the sensors bring fresh air from outside in," Bliss said.

Rounding out elementary school improvements are new ceilings in all classrooms that meet fire code for a cost of approximately $90,000, the cleaning of interior surfaces and trusses in the gym at $9,000 and the installation of fiber optics for $22,000.

At the middle school two classrooms have been added upstairs within existing walls.

In adding the two classrooms the technology workroom for the district was displaced and moved downstairs to a space that had been used as a closet.

"A lot of the work was donated by Curt Kallberg" of Kallberg Construction, said Bliss. Pine Mountain Acoustical of Bend also contributed to the project.

State superintendent calls Sisters bond issue legal

The Sisters School District's issuance of $2.1 million in full faith and credit obligations without an election has passed muster with the Oregon Department of Education.

Funds from the sale of the $2.1 million in full faith and credit obligations are being used for the purchase of a two-classroom modular unit and capital improvements at the elementary school and for the addition of two classrooms inside the middle school (see related story, page 1).

"There are various mechanisms available for purposes of financing the needs of local government and school districts. The financing done by Sisters School District is allowable under Oregon law without an election. As long as the district is using resources available to them within the statutory limitations, no vote is required," Oregon Department of Education Communications Director Gene Evans stated.

The statement on behalf of state Superintendent Susan Castillo came as a response to Sisters resident Mike Morgan, who challenged the move.

Evans told The Nugget that Castillo's opinion is based on input from the Oregon School Board's Association and the Portland law firm K&L Gates. Ann Sherman, the bond counsel who represented the Sisters School District in the issuance of the full faith and credit obligations, is an administrative partner at K&L Gates.

"We are simply in agreement with the legal analysis done by OSBA's legal staff and the firm of K&L Gates - that is, Sisters operated within the statutory guidelines and no vote was needed," Evans told The Nugget.

Deschutes District Attorney Michael Dugan had earlier declined a request from Morgan to investigate the matter. Representative Gene Whisnant has asked legislative counsel for an opinion.

"We saw The Nugget story about Representative Whisnant asking Legislative Counsel for an opinion; therefore, we did not ask the Department of Justice for an additional opinion," Evans said. "The review by legislative counsel should settle the issue. On issues like this, we depend on the good work of attorneys who are experts in the issues."

Morgan is still awaiting responses from Attorney General Hardy Myers and Whisnant and is hopeful that Castillo's interest in the Legislative Council's opinion is a sign that she is open to looking into the matter in more detail.

Morgan agrees with Castillo that school districts are permitted various forms of borrowing that do not include obligating taxpayers. His concern is that the Sisters School District did not choose one of these but instead a form that requires voter approval.

Morgan argues that the full faith and credit obligations the district issued are limited tax bonds (ORS 288.150(9) that encumber taxpayers (ORS 288.162(3). Morgan told The Nugget that this fact is acknowledged in the Sisters School District's Official Statement about the issuance of the bonds dated May 8, 2007.

"(Neither) the SSD (Sisters School District) nor ODE (Oregon Department of Education) has cited or can cite any statute or legal authority that exempts the requirement for voter approval, ORS 328.213(1), based on a pledge of current or anticipated assets. This bond debt was sold with the representation that it was secured by taxes imposed to the maximum allowed by the Oregon Constitution," Morgan said.