OSBA Board President Sami Al-Abdrabbuh, a Corvallis School Board member, opens the Bonds, Ballots and Buildings Conference on Friday in Salem. (Photo by Lionel Lynner, OSBA)
The Glendale School District will likely need to seek a bond in the next few years, according to board Chair Tom Chanez. So he made the roughly three-hour trip north to Salem for the OSBA Bonds, Ballots and Buildings Conference.
“I want to educate myself,” he said.
The biennial conference on Friday, Feb. 16, offered what Chanez needed. He planned to attend sessions covering bond basics and how to go about planning a campaign and getting a bond on the ballot.
The Salem Convention Center event registered more than 200 school district leaders and experts in finance, construction, education and communication. Conference sessions ranged from the basics to advanced stages of a bond project while drawing on the experiences of school leaders and industry professionals who have successfully executed bond efforts.
Liz Martin, Lincoln County School Board member, was part of a successful bond campaign in 2011. She attended Friday because her district is considering a campaign to replace that bond.
“I thought I knew quite a bit,” said Martin, the 2023 Oregon School Board Member of the Year. “I found out there are a lot of new ideas.”
Scott Rogers, an Athena-Weston school board member, said the conference brings together representatives of all the parties that must be at the table for a successful bond project. Rogers, a former OSBA Board president, is project executive for the construction company Wenaha Group.
“It’s the premier event for school districts to get informed about bonds and capital projects,” he said.
COVID-19 curbed bond efforts, and the infusion of federal emergency money gave districts funds for facility upgrades for a while. Rogers said the need for bonds is reawakening, though. The event’s full conference rooms and engaged audiences attested to the interest.
Many attendees are still years out from pursuing a bond, but the experts say successful bond campaigns call for extensive planning.
Scott Rose, senior project manager for R&C Management, told one workshop that a bond project can take up to seven years from assessment to close-out.
McMinnville School District Director of Operations Brian Crain was at Friday’s event to start preparing for a possible bond campaign in 2027.
“I’m just trying to learn as much as I can,” he said.
David Warner, Forest Grove School District director of communications, told attendees at a communications workshop that districts need to be engaging with their communities before, after and during a bond campaign.
“The next time we need to be thinking about a bond is as soon as we pass it,” he said.
Susan FitzGerald, the Yamhill-Carlton School Board chair, attended the communications workshop because she had been impressed by Forest Grove’s messaging during its recent bond campaign.
FitzGerald said her district made some mistakes in a 2016 bond campaign. She said she attended the conference to figure out how they could do better.
“I got the information I needed,” she said.
– Jake Arnold, OSBA
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