If Sweet Home voters agree to continue the current bond levy they pay, Sweet Home School District will get $12.2 million from the state to upgrade the high school.
That news came Friday, Dec. 19, in response to the district’s application for the Oregon School Capital Improvement Matching Grant funds which, Business Manager Kevin Strong told the School Board at its meeting Monday, Dec. 15, was submitted at 8:01 a.m. the morning of the meeting, one minute after the window for applications opened.
In a report to the board, Strong noted that Sweet Home ranks in the top 15% of Oregon school districts on the state’s priority list for such funding. The $12,252,000 grant is the maximum available to any individual district, he said.
Now that the district qualifies for the grant, voters will need to agree to extend the current $4 million bond levy, which was approved in the May 2016 election, which would enable Sweet Home to receive the matching grant. The 2017 grant was used to upgrade Sweet Home Junior High.
School, Anistyn Weikel of Sweet Home Junior High, Elsie Leffler of Foster, Lynfel Franzcysse Damag of the Junior High and Chelsea Archer of Oak Heights. Not available for the photo were Elena Briggs of the High School and Irie Smith of Holley.
The next step is for the School Board to decide whether to refer a bond measure to the ballot. The Board is expected to make that decision at its next meeting, on Jan. 12.
According to Strong, the proposed bond would address the following objectives:
- Maintain the current tax rate: The bond would be structured to keep the tax rate flat at the current level.
“By combining the $12.2 million grant with funds the district has saved and capitalizing on the retirement of existing debt, we can structure the proposed bond to keep the tax rate flat,” Strong said.
During the past decade, he noted, the district’s bond tax rate has declined from $1.64 per $1,000 of assessed value in 2015 to $1.45 this year. The proposed measure would maintain this lower rate and is expected to raise approximately $40 million for facility needs.
- Improve student safety and security: Funds would upgrade security at every school, prioritizing urgent needs at Sweet Home High School. The high school currently has more than 40 separate entrances with direct public access to student areas and lacks a secure entry vestibule. Bond proceeds would fund a secure campus perimeter. All visitors and students returning during the school day would be required to check in through the front office. Fire alarms, communication systems, and lockdown systems would also be upgraded.
According to Facilities Director Josh Darwood, many of the needed improvements would involve the classrooms and career learning areas at Sweet Home High School.
Located on the south side of the school, most learning areas feature an older “California-style” campus design with flat-roof construction and open breezeways.
“Many of the high school’s classroom sections were built when there were very different expectations for school safety and durability,” Darwood said. “Updating these spaces allows us to address long-standing security challenges while replacing structures that were never designed to perform well in our local weather conditions. It also provides an excellent opportunity to significantly upgrade career learning facilities for students without increasing the tax rate.”
- Upgrade classrooms and career learning facilities: Funds would improve classrooms and career learning facilities where students gain hands-on job skills aligned with local workforce needs. Music and physical education spaces would also be improved, planned in coordination with community partners to maximize community benefit.
Strong said the proposed bondwill build on the district’s track record of recent facility improvements. Over the past decade, the school district used grant funds and district savings to complete safety, security, and seismic upgrades at Foster, Hawthorne, Holley, and Oak Heights elementary schools, as well as the high school auditorium.
The District also made substantial facility improvements at Sweet Home Junior High School by combining grants, district savings, and a voter-approved bond that was structured to maintain the tax rate.
“We recognize that Sweet Home has a limited tax base, and fiscal restraint matters,” Strong said. “Our goal is to use grants, available savings, and the retirement of existing debt so we can make needed school improvements without burdening the community with a higher tax rate.”
- Extend the life of school buildings: Funds would replace aging flat-roof classroom sections with durable construction designed for Western Oregon’s climate, reducing maintenance costs and extending the useful life of school facilities.
Land Purchase Approval
Sweet Home School Board members agreed unanimously Monday, Dec. 15, at their monthly meeting, to purchase a piece of property adjacent to Sweet Home High School in an effort to improve transportation access to the high school.
After a closed session in which they discussed the potential real estate purchase, as well as their evaluation procedure for the district superintendent, board members, with the exception of Mary Speck, who was absent, emerged to vote in favor of the purchase.
Board members agreed to pay $90,000 for the flag-shaped property, located on 18th Avenue, which does not have a physical address. It is 12,214 square feet in size, per county records, and is vacant except for a storage structure. Its west side faces the existing wood shop on the high school campus.
Business Manager Kevin Strong said after the meeting that the property “creates opportunities to improve safety and expand career training for students.”
“One potential use is that it could be used for a much-needed greenhouse for our agriculture program,” Strong said. “We also recognize the existing wood shop next to this site is nearing the end of its useful life, and if it were relocated elsewhere on campus, this area could help create a safer bus circulation route, reducing congestion and improving traffic safety.”
The purchase is conditional on the satisfactory results of an environmental site assessment, Strong said.
Board members also approved a two-year grant agreement that will allot the school district nearly $4.7 million from Student Investment Account funds, which are granted to assist in meeting students’ mental or behavioral health needs and boost academic achievement for disadvantaged students. The total grant funds of $4,695,508.28 will be disbursed over the next two years, through September of 2027.
In other action, the board:
- Heard a report from Holley Principal Josh Dargis, who described the school’s Character Ambassador Program, in which the school emphasizes various character traits, such as ethics, respect or honesty, monthly throughout the school year – this month’s being integrity, with optimism coming in January. Dargis reported that the program has been in operation at Holley for five years and teachers use it in their classrooms throughout the month, then select two or three students at the end of the month for recognition as Character Ambassadors, which means they get to help out at the student store, help with announcements and get recognized at an assembly, to which parents are invited.
“We should have done that five years ago,” he said of the latter.
Plus, Dargis said, students are rewarded with such things as trinkets and pizza parties.
- Heard from student Cannon Klumph that the high school’s canned food drive in November netted 2,186 pounds of food and raised $1,903, which were used to feed 60 families.
- Agreed unanimously to delay adoption of social sciences curriculum for district schools for two years.
Supt. Terry Martin said it is not unusual for school districts to delay purchasing curriculum and the district doesn’t need new curriculum immediately.
“It’s not a problem with the materials,” he told the board. “We have spent quite a bit on curriculum the last two years. We just want to postpone the adoption.”