By Kristine Thomas
Stacks of documents with hundreds of pages describing the conditions of the buildings in the Silver Falls School District have been whittled down to two documents – one by the district’s Facilities Master Plan Committee with four pages and the other by Randal Saunders, an architect from Woodburn, with eight pages.
Both documents will serve as guidelines for Silver Falls School Board members to make decisions in the future for its facilities, such as the fate of Eugene Field School, what’s to be done with Schlador Street high school campus after the completion of the Pine Street campus and where the district office should be located.
At its Aug. 11 meeting, the school board unanimously approved the recommendations in the facilities master plan.
Chairman Gordon Goschie and co-vice chairs Scott Pritchard and Victor Madge of the Master Facilities Plan Committee presented their committee’s general recommendations, as well as those for the in-town schools, Schlador Street Campus and rural schools.
Goschie praised the committee’s work, mentioning that the group was comprised of different sectors of the community. The committee held two public meetings last spring to gather community input.
“The committee was shocked at what the architect considered the condition of some of the schools and the associated costs involved,” Goschie said.
Goschie said the recommendations followed a comprehensive process that included reviewing the conditions of school facilities and consulting with an architect and community members to address the needs of the district’s facilities for now and several decades to come. The intent of the Facilities Master Plan Committee was to provide a starting point for facilities planning. It will be up to the school board to make final decisions.
“What we presented is just an outline,” said Pritchard to the school board members. “It’s up to you for the specifics.”
Roessler said the board will use the facilities plan periodically as it sets goals and budget priorities.
Many of the ideas in the plan can’t be done until funding is secured. The committee recommended the district should seek voter approval of a bond measure in 2013.
The bond would be for:
• demolishing older buildings at the Schlador Campus, if retrofitting is not economically feasible;
• building a new middle school for sixth-through-eighth-grade students at Schlador using the structurally sound portions of the old school such as gym and cafeteria;
• adding another pod to Robert Frost School and converting it to grades kindergarten through third to replace Eugene Field;
• converting Mark Twain School to fourth and fifth grade;
• making improvements to rural schools; and, selling Eugene Field.
The committee also recommended the district hire a grant writer to pursue funding for all school-related feasibility studies, upgrades and new construction projects.
The committee cautioned the school board against putting good money into old buildings.
“The committee’s idea is not to spend any more money updating or patching schools,” Pritchard said.
Saunders’ report provided a detailed description of each school, its current condition and a recommendation.
For Butte Creek, the report reads, “We believe an immediate need for this facility is to establish a sewer system on site to serve the school and establish a replacement area for the system, as required by the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality.” The report also recommends building a new school on the site.
“Investing large sums of money in this school is not, in our opinion, good financial stewardship,” the report says.
For Eugene Field, “the need to replace this structure, we believe, is obvious and not debatable.” In 1969, the Silverton Elementary Board of Directors recommended no further maintenance funds to be allocated to Eugene Field and that the building be replaced.
“I don’t recommend investing any more money into Eugene Field,” Madge said. “Hopefully, people will realize it’s worn out and dangerous.”
To build a new elementary school costs between $18 to $20 million, Roessler said, adding if the district sold Eugene Field the money from the sale wouldn’t begin to cover the costs for a new school.
One building worth more investment, according to Saunders’ report, is Mark Twain. If it is given “focused and dedicated maintenance we believe there is another 25-30 years of useful life in the physical plant. Without such attention, we believe that useful life is reduced to 10-15 years.”
Saunders said the extent of the work implemented will depend on the district’s financial abilities.
“Do not invest good money in bad facilities,” he wrote. “Focus on new facilities. Too many of the existing schools and sites are old, worn and tired and at the end of their useful lives.”
Saunders said it is more cost efficient for operations and maintenance for the district to have fewer schools. For example, rather than having four schools totaling a population of 300 students, it would be more cost efficient to have one school for 300 students.
Saunders suggested the district establish and keep a maintenance schedule. He said the district should dedicate 3 to 5 percent of its current budget to maintenance. Currently, Roessler said, the district allocates less than 1 percent of the budget or $85,000 for maintenance.
However, Roessler said, as the school year progresses, the district usually spends significantly more than $85,000 on unforeseen needs such as furnaces requiring replacement, removal of underground fuel tanks, or repair or replacing septic systems.
The amount spent above the budgeted amount varies each year. If the district was to take Saunders’ recommendation and spent 3 to 5 percent of its budget on maintenance that would amount to $925,000 to $1.5 million a year, Roessler said.
Construction Excise Tax
Now that the school district has a feasibility plan, it can approve a construction excise tax. Roessler said the school board has a draft agreement that he is forwarding to the city of Silverton and Marion County for their review and eventual approval.
“The law authorizing school districts to impose a construction excise tax required that school districts have a long-range facilities plan,” Roessler said, adding it will take four to six months to complete the paperwork before the tax could be administered.
The law – or Senate Bill 1036 – authorizes school districts to impose construction taxes with the revenue dedicated to capital improvements and projects, including buying land, construction and reconstruction or improvements of school facilities. The tax revenue cannot be used for operating costs or routine maintenance.
Roessler said the plan is still in the early stages and the board still needs to iron out details, such as would it impose a tax on businesses building in Silverton?
District Office
In the coming months, the school board also will have to decide where to locate the district office. The Facilities Committee cautioned the school board against placing the district in a temporary home, only to move it again. Each time the office is moved, it costs money.
Roessler said the office would need to be relocated from the Pine Street Campus – either temporarily or permanently – by the middle of June 2009.
In its considerations of issues ranging from where to place the district office to what should be done with the Schlador Street Campus – keep parts and try to retrofit old with new or tear everything down and start from scratch – Saunders said the school board does not have an enlightened path on what it should do.
“There are still many things to be figured out,” he said.
