The Philomath School District’s superintendent last week kicked off discussions with the governing board on facilities needs over the next five years — including future plans that could lead to a possible construction bond in 2030 and more immediate needs such as classroom space for Philomath Academy students.
“The notion of looking to a construction bond in five years is like tomorrow — and so those are the conversations we have to have,” said Susan Halliday, superintendent of schools. “For instance, if there’s a particular facility that we know or believe we want to do work with, we don’t want to put lots of ongoing updates across the next five years into that facility if something’s going to happen.”
Facilities questions to be answered range from new construction to remodeling to expansion.
“A couple of things that we would look at is with the bond’s capacity … and the cost of materials — we may not be able to afford a (new) school; it would be too much of an ask for our community to be able to say ‘ yes, we can support this financially.’ So we really have to think in that direction.”
Halliday also mentioned more immediate facility needs related to Philomath Academy, the school district’s alternative learning option that is currently housed in the back of the school district’s administration building.
“They’re kind of getting to a place where the capacity of a single classroom for their middle and high school students is reaching a max point,” she said. “That’s a need right now.”
Several questions come to mind, Halliday said, when talking about Philomath Academy needs.
“I know the question has been raised about what happens if the state enrollment goes down and we end up with room in another school to be able to do some shuffling? What might that look like?” Halliday said. “It’s really about playing the game of how do we look across multiple years?”
Another facility Halliday mentioned was the district’s swimming pool, an aging facility that has been a costly operation.
“We know from years of history that Clemens Community Pool is tenuous, I guess would be the word,” she said. “But we also know that decommissioning a pool is not cheap if we get to a place of doing that, so it’s another place that we want to look at.”
With the district now handling its own food services, a commercial kitchen was mentioned as another need that is “on the radar,” Halliday said.
As of March 13, the school district’s enrollment was reported as 1,620 — 433 at Philomath High School, 86 at Philomath Academy, 345 at Philomath Middle School, 370 at Philomath Elementary School, 161 at Clemens Primary School, 29 at Blodgett Elementary and 196 at Kings Valley Charter School.
The district does have money that it has saved from a Kings Valley property sale for the purpose of facility needs. Said Halliday, “We want to make sure we’re being thoughtful and prudent in what we do with that money and we don’t want to say ‘we’ll spend it all now’ and not have anything when we get to a place to supplement a bonding experience.”
Other funding possibilities include maintenance reserves and available state grants for districts that pass bonds.
“We also have to look at the impact and the timing for the renewal of our local option,” Halliday said. “That’s part of the strategic planning we’re working on.”
Voters originally approved a five-year local option levy in 2013, which generated property taxes to be spent specifically in the classroom. In 2018 and 2023, voters approved five-year renewals of the levy, which comprises 5.2% of all general fund revenue.
Halliday said that the district’s facilities director, Joey DiGiovannangelo, would attend the April regular meeting to brief the board on projects and answer any questions.
“It’s important that we have the voices of numerous people to be able to help us make well-informed, educated decisions that serve us now and in the future,” Halliday said.
