Group sets its sights on bond promotion

By JESSICA KELLER
ARGUS OBSERVER
Saturday, August 9, 2008 10:49 PM PDT

ONTARIO—Getting the word out seems to be the key for the 8C Facilities Task Force promotion committee during this next school bond election set for November.

The promotion committee, comprised of many members of the former Ontario School Facilities Task Force, met for the first time last week to discuss the best strategy in the upcoming months for the ambitious $18.5 million district-wide improvement plan.

In November, school district voters will decide on whether to move forward with the second phase of the Ontario School Facilities Task Force 20-year capital construction plan. If passed, the $18.5 million bond will provide for new science classrooms at the high school; constructing a new building at Ontario Middle School to accommodate up to 500 students plus offices and renovate an existing middle school building to handle up to 250 students; update existing school systems and facilities at each of the schools; make site improvements and pay bond issuance costs.

Dr. Ben Peterson, promotion committee chairman, said, thus far, the committee’s strategy is to put as many people out in the community to interact with residents and explain the plan in detail in hopes of delivering a unified message to everyone. He said the message would be the merits of the plan and the rationale behind the decision to move forward with a school bond.

“Especially the merits of having good schools in the community to those who don’t have children in school or who are on a fixed income,” Peterson said.

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He said when the Ontario School Facilities Task Force surveyed community members to determine what type of school improvements they wanted, almost half of those who responded indicated they would support paying $1.50 per $1,000 assessed property value for schools. The $18.5 million bond is based on approximately $1.49 per $1,000.

Both Peterson and promotion committee member Ken Hart, who also was on the original task force as a cochair, said the downturn in the economy will no doubt play a part in people’s decisions.

“Oh sure, the economic situation that individuals find themselves in will definitely have a big impact on the success of the effort and any other efforts,” Hart said.

It will be up to the committee, however, to try to convince voters based on the merits of the plan and the need to update all of the schools, both men said.

“$1.50 is a very reasonable amount to pay to make a big difference at each school,” Peterson said. “This bond is going to go for 20 years, and in that time there’s bound to be ups and downs in the economy, and we just have to anticipate there’s good times to follow here shortly.”

“I sure hope personally that it’s better, but it is very, very difficult to try and time any types of these efforts with the economy,” Hart said.

Peterson said the committee has already recruited about 300 people who are not directly involved in the promotion committee, but who are interested in helping, to speak with other individuals who may not be familiar with the effort and the reasons behind it.

The committee also intends to speak with public service groups and other community organizations and send out flyers in both English and Spanish to both community residents and parents and in its effort.

He also said the Ontario School Facilities Task Force Web site will include all the information available about the bond and frequently asked questions.

Peterson said, while he lived in Idaho during the last school bond election, he was uneasy with the effort because it appeared little or no community input was used to develop the plan.

“And that is one thing the group has done. These plans are based strictly on community input,” he said.

Ontario resident Ray Dickerson, who was highly critical of the last school bond effort, said he was not directly involved with the task force but did offer his suggestions and attended a conference in Bend with them to discuss how the schools should be organized. Overall, he said he has been pleased with how the development of this plan took place.

“That had been my criticism before — that this had all been done in secret by a bunch of elitists,” Dickerson said, specifically mentioning the school district purchasing property for the proposed new high school.

The only thing Dickerson said he disagrees with in the new plan is it did not dissolve the neighborhood schools for a centralized elementary school where students could socialize with each other long before middle school and high school, where he said they arrive with their own clicks and gangs. However, he said understands the recommendation to keep the neighborhood elementary schools was based on the survey results, and he is fine with that.

Still, Dickerson wonders if school district residents will get out and support the bond effort in November.

“If I had to guess, it’ll fail, but I’m kind of hoping that it does not fail because a lot of people have put a lot of work into it,” he said.

More optimistically, however, Dickerson said he thinks people may also be more aware of the challenges the school facilities face and recognize something needs to be done. He said he has not heard the types of derogatory statements about the school facilities and the bonds that he has in the past 20 years.

“Maybe some of this disenchantment, however you want to phrase it, is gone,” he said more optimistically. “Now maybe the people are ready to vote.”