Board sends voters $116 million levy.

Byline: ANNE WILLIAMS The Register-Guard

Eugene voters will see a $116 million measure for new and improved schools on the May 21 primary election ballot.

In a unanimous vote Wednesday, the school board agreed to a 20-year bond measure that would pay to replace four elementary schools with two new ones, rebuild two middle schools and complete scores of additions, repairs and renovations at schools throughout the district.

The measure is a pared-down version of a $143 million plan crafted last fall by an advisory panel.

Superintendent George Russell recommended seeking the smaller amount, citing tough economic times, but also said he'd like to see the projects now missing - most notably the replacement or renovation of Roosevelt Middle School - on another measure recommended for 2008. Two more bond measures would follow that one, one in 2014 and the last in 2020.

The May measure would pay to close Westmoreland and Patterson elementary schools and build a new elementary school on the Patterson site; close Washington and Willakenzie elementary schools and build a new elementary school adjacent to Monroe Middle School; and rebuild Cal Young and Madison middle schools.

It also would pay for a new science wing and student center at North Eugene High School; a new science and technology wing at Sheldon High School; a new student center at South Eugene High School; classroom additions to replace portables at Churchill High School; and numerous other upgrades and repairs.

One of the projects initially missing in the $116 million version was a $2 million facility to house Churchill High School's Rachel Carson Center for Natural Resources. The center has been working with various community partners, including the federal Bureau of Land Management and the Audubon Society, to build a wetlands education center in west Eugene. The Rachel Carson center would anchor the complex and become a magnet program for area high schools.

Russell took that project out of his proposal. But the board earlier this month asked to restore at least a portion of the $2 million to help get the project off the ground, so Russell scuttled some security upgrades to earmark $500,000 - contingent on supporters securing funding from other project partners - for the planning of the center.

Several Rachel Carson students, as well as representatives from different partner agencies, addressed the board, stressing how critical district support is to the project's momentum and ultimate success. After some disagreement, the board approved the bond with the $500,000 for the center.

"I think if we decide not to do it tonight we have decided in essence to kill the project," member Chris Pryor said.

Craig Smith said he opposed its inclusion, but would vote with the rest of the board to support the bond measure.

"I still think it runs counter to our idea of school consolidation, larger buildings, saving operating costs because of that," he said.

The $116 million measure would cost an average of 84 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value. The owner of an average-priced home - $143,300 - would pay an average of $134 a year over that span, assuming the home's value rises 4 percent each year. Because some of the debt from previous bond measures will have been paid off, the same homeowner's average annual tax would climb by $124, not $134, over that period.

Eugene voters also will decide on two city measures: a $19.6 million property tax levy to operate the new downtown library and an $8.7 million bond to build a fire station downtown.