In order to ensure that facilities can meet the future needs of all students, staff, and the community, Newberg Public Schools is launching an extensive long-range facilities evaluation. ORS 195.110 requires school districts to develop a comprehensive, ten-year school facility plan that includes population projections, physical improvements to schools and facilities, and financial plans to meet school facility needs.

The district will consult with an architect and a group of community volunteers to determine the status of all facilities and grounds as well as explore safety and security needs.  Community members have already been approached to be a part of the process, with more than two dozen emphatically agreeing to participate.

“Part of this plan is to bring folks together, and not only have conversations about what the community wants -- what they see as the mission and the vision of the district -- but actually have assessors go out, into the schools and look at the conditions of our systems, our buildings, our roofs, the whole system,” explained Assistant Superintendent Dave Parker, who will lead the planning process.

Once the facilities are evaluated, the committee will engage the community to get feedback on the next steps. Together, they’ll prioritize maintenance, repairs, and any potential replacement and determine how to fund them, which could include a general obligation bond.

Oregon is one of a few states that does not provide funding for building schools or major capital renovations. School districts are expected to finance these projects with general obligation bonds authorized by the district’s local voters. Voters last approved a $27 million bond in 2011 that will be paid in full in 2019. That bond paid for security updates, construction repairs and improvements, and some technology upgrades and purchases.

“One of the things that became very clear is that the planning for this is really important because we don’t want to fix something in this next bond that two bonds from now we’re going to replace. So there needs to be some very good, systemic thinking around not only what’s going to happen in two years, but also five years, ten years, and twenty years,” suggested Parker.

The Newberg School District Board of Directors voted unanimously on November 29, 2017 to convene a committee to work on the long-range facilities plan. According to Parker, the committee will begin work in January and present its findings to the Board in May or June of 2018. Next fall, a committee will take the findings to the community.

“The group will take the long-range facilities plan, and through engagement with our community, pick out some of the specific projects, get feedback, and then craft whatever we need to put forward to the Board for a recommendation on what should be included in a bond. Whether that is, ‘we shouldn’t bond anything,’ or that is ‘this is the set of needs we need to prepare for,’” concluded Parker.

If a bond is needed, the district would target a May 2019 election, when the current bond obligation will be satisfied.