Sweet Home School Board members, in a special meeting Monday, June 22, declared the results of the May 19 election in which voters passed a $40 million general obligation bond to fund school renovations.
In a brief online meeting, members – with the exception of Amanda Carter, who was absent, approved a resolution to declare the results of the election in which 56.39% of voters supported the request.
By state law,, the school board serves as the “district elections authority” and when county election officials finish tabulating ballots, signature verification, and audits, they deliver the official abstract of votes to the school board. The school board is then required to meet, canvas those abstracts, and formally pass a resolution to declare the results.
Passage of the bond gives the school an additional $12.25 million from a matching grant from the state.
The money will be used for safety upgrades to the high school, which currently has approximately 40 points of entry to classrooms and other facilities from nearby streets, along with building replacements, career-technical training facilities and other upgrades to district facilities.
The board also approved the resignation of Zech Brown, forestry teacher at the high school for the past four years, who wrote in a resignation letter that he has decided to pursue a career as a firefighter with the Oregon Department of Forestry.
Board members also unanimously approved the sale of a sawmill at the high school.
Supt. Terry Martin explained that the Mobile Dimension Saw unit, manufactured by Mobile MFG Co. of Troutdale, is one of two possessed by the high school and, with two blades, “is a little more complex” than the other one.
“We have a working sawmill,” he told the board. “We are going to attempt to sell it to recoup some money from it and, ideally, it would go that way. If not, it would go the way of property that we surplus out.”
The board also learned that the high school band is planning an overnight trip to Newport for band camp.
Martin said he wanted the board to be aware of that, since in recent years, the band camp trips have been single-day events.