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| MRSD hoping for new school of thought in November election |
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| Bond levy would build a new middle school, upgrade other school facilities |
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 | | Photo By Russell Bassett | | If passed, Ballot Measure 3-254 would fund a new Molalla River Middle School, to be built at the same lot as the current school on Leroy Street. School officials say the 50-year-old school is not conducive to learning. |
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Molalla River School Board Chair Janette Palmer acknowledged Molalla citizens face tough decisions come November.
Along with the school district’s $47.4 million bond that would tax landowners $2.66 per $1,000 of assessed property value, the Molalla Fire District is asking for a 5-year, $2.6-million levy that would tax 49 cents per $1,000.
In addition, the city of Molalla is hoping voters will approve a 5-year, $1.1-million levy that would tax 59 cents per $1,000; Clackamas County is proposing a 5-year, $42.8 million levy that would tax 24.8 cents per $1,000 of property value; and the Clackamas Soil and Water Conservation District is asking for a permanent rate limit of 5 cents per $1,000.
If all measures pass, the average land owner (with property valued at $200,000) could have annual property taxes raised by around $800.
“People will look at that and have to make choices,” Palmer said, “and those are not easy choices to make. ... Anytime you have to swallow the fact that you’re going to pay more taxes, it is always a difficult choice.”
The proposed MRSD bond, Ballot Measure 3-254, would raise an estimated $37 million to build a new middle school and an additional $10.4 million to upgrade facilities and infrastructure at the district’s other schools.
District officials estimate it will take 20 to 25 years to repay the bond.
In 2000, Molalla residents voted down a similar initiative that would have funded a new middle school, but Palmer said she believes people need to vote for the district’s new measure because “we have waited long enough. Six years ago there was a lot of questions on whether or not we need a new middle school, but now it is time. ... There was a generation that made a choice to provide good educational facilities for our children, who have been using the (middle) school for 50 years. I would hope that we would make a choice now to provide a positive learning environment and safe environment for the generations to come.”
In January, the district tasked a committee of community members to assess the district’s facilities needs. In May, the committee made the recommendation to put the $47.4 million bond before voters.
“We decided that every school should benefit from it. That was the criteria, with the middle school being the cornerstone,” committee member Scott Delbridge said. “Once you took that, the other funds were based on priorities that were crucial at each school. It wasn’t just a one-time decision. It was a long, drawn-out process. We toured every single building, every hallway and every backroom of every school.”
Delbridge, pastor of the Molalla Church of the Nazarene, said he does not support the measure as a pastor, but he does as a committee member and parent of three children who attend district schools.
“I’d never advocate passing a bond from the pulpit, but I was asked to serve (on the facilities study committee) and after serving, my eyes were opened to a lot of needs I didn’t know existed,” he said. “I don’t want to pay more in taxes either, but somebody paid taxes for me to go to a nice school and now it’s my turn. It’s a reflection on society that we take care of our kids first, no matter what age you are.”
The pastor noted that the cost of building a new middle school has doubled from the time it was placed before voters in 2000.
“Eventually (the middle school) is going to have to be replaced, and if we vote no, we are just putting off the inevitable. Waiting just a year, we had to factor in inflation. Imagine how much it would cost to start the project all over again. ... If you are going to build and upgrade, do it now rather than come back later when it is more expensive.”
Problems with the middle school
Delbridge said the committee was in 100-percent agreement that the district needs a new middle school.
“Once you tour the middle school, you see that it has some major problems,” he said. “It has been patched up about as much as you can get that thing patched.”
The current Molalla River Middle School on Leroy Street was built in 1954 as an elementary school and was used in that capacity for many years. School officials say because of that, the rooms are too small for quality learning.
“These classrooms were built when there were 22 students to a classroom and now we average 33, plus the students are bigger,” MRMS Principal Bob Espenel said. “You just can’t have a table or two for small group work. There is just no room for that.”
Espenel said the school also has issues with accommodating its 700-plus students in the common areas.
“We don’t have a place where we can all assemble. They just won’t fit into the gym,” he said, noting that the school’s small cafeteria can barely contain all the kids even though the school has three different lunch times.
The principal pointed out several other problems areas, including heating and cooling issues, leaking roofs, patched carpets, chipping paint and a faulty intercom system.
“Safety is an issue,” he said. “We’ve got many access points from outside the building.”
Sixth-grade teacher Linda Segal, who has taught at the school for 17 years, said crowding is the biggest problem.
“When we have the sixth-graders out getting materials from their lockers, there is no room for the other students to walk through the halls,” she said. “Classrooms are so crowded. Teachers have to get creative with setting up their classrooms so people can walk around.”
Segal said heating “is a very big problem. This room can be 80 degrees, and a half hour later it will be 60 degrees. Other times it will be 50 to 60 degrees in a classroom until second period.”
While all the rooms do have heating — when it works properly — many of them do not have air conditioning.
“Teachers will walk in in the morning and it will be 90 degrees in their room, and that’s in the morning,” Espenel said.
Both Espenel and Segal said the building is not conducive to learning.
“When you have a building this old, it is hard to feel good about coming to school everyday,” Espenel said. “It’s not a bright and colorful place, and when the heating isn’t working — when it’s 95 degrees in a classroom — it’s impossible to learn.”
“I think it does impact kids,” Segal added. “They see it as a dull and non-inviting environment — and it is not the teachers and staff — it’s the building that’s not inviting. The teachers have a welcome for kids, but the building is not something that is warm.”
The proposed new middle school
Should the bond measure pass, a new middle school will be built directly north of the old one on the same grounds. The old school will be torn down and turned into ball fields.
The proposed, two-story school would have classroom space for 800 kids and common room space for 1,000.
According to a fact sheet provided by the district, the new school would:
• Increase student and staff safety by controlling building access through a single entry point.
• Update science classrooms and laboratories
• Have larger classrooms
• Improve air quality and heating and ventilation systems
• Have lighted parking
• Have a larger gymnasium, library and cafeteria
“The facilities study committee determined that renovating the existing school would not accommodate projected enrollment growth, safety and instructional issues,” reads the fact sheet.
Palmer said some parents have voiced concerns that the new school might limit available space for sports, but she said the new school’s two gymnasiums can be split in half to accommodate two practice areas at each gym.
“We are not losing those facilities and the number of fields that will be replaced, we won’t be losing any of our athletic facilities,” she said.
MRSD Superintendent Wayne Kostur expects that the new middle school to be ready for use by Fall 2009, if the measure passes.
Other facilities needs
Along with the new middle school, the proposed bond measure would make improvements at every existing district school.
Other improvements include:
• Upgrading obsolete ventilation and heating systems to improve air quality
• Repair and upgrade roofs, gutters, siding and parking lots
• Upgrade and install school electrical systems, including fire alarms, intercoms and lighting
• Upgrade technology infrastructure, including giving each school wireless Internet access
• Upgrading elementary schools to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act
• Plumbing upgrades
• Site improvements
• Seismic upgrades
Mulino Elementary School would receive the most costly upgrades at $1.9 million, much of which would be spent to enclose classrooms.
Currently, many of the classrooms have a direct door to the outside, which school officials say is a security risk.
Also included in the bond measure: Molalla High School would receive $1.73 million in upgrades and improvements, Rural Dell would receive $1.46 million, Clarkes $1.2 million, Dickey Prairie $1.15 million, Molalla Elementary $887,178 and Maple Grove $828,486. In addition, the district’s administration building would receive $942,114 in upgrades and the MHS Natural Resource Center would receive $26,460.
Delbridge noted that the technology upgrades are needed because “computers are what the world is going to. To hook them up hardwire just doesn’t make any sense. With wireless, it saves time and money. There is no reason in today’s age not to go wireless. Hardwire is old school and it costs more money.”
“I feel like we have been good stewards,” Kostur said. “We maximized our dollars to provide good programs for our students, and we have not had the money to spend on facility needs. We are asking the community to invest in facilities.”
The district has detailed lists of improvements that would be made at each school should the bond measure pass.
For more information, call the district at 503-829-2359.
No one filed an opposition to the measure with Clackamas County, just as no one filed an opposition to the November 2000 bond measure that failed.
Deadline for ballots is Nov. 7. |
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