Central Linn School District hasn’t passed a bond in nearly 30 years. District leaders said this spring’s $34 million initiative follows a volunteer-run community advisory committee’s recommendations.
Located in Halsey, the district has an elementary school, and a junior and senior high school. Business Manager Celeste Van Cleave said the secondary school, in particular, is suffering.
“We’re one infrastructure failure away from complete shutdown," she told KLCC. "So our electricity is inadequate, our plumbing is inadequate. Our water actually comes through a pipe from Halsey, from our elementary school. It travels a mile to get here and the sewage travels a mile to get back there.”
Van Cleave said the bond would fund system upgrades, safety and accessibility changes, and new classroom wings at the high school, which she said is "all brick infrastructure and is 100% collapsible in an earthquake."
Voters declined bond initiatives in 2016 and 2017. Van Cleave said those bonds were intended to fund a new K-12 campus. She said the advisory committee learned that residents feel it’s important to preserve the 1930s era elementary school, which is central to the town of Halsey.
If it passes, the bond would cost taxpayers $1.89 per $1,000 of property value, and the district would earn an additional $6 million in grant funds from the State of Oregon.
