Election 2022: Voters secure $4.5 million school board bond with 58% of the vote

May 18—LA GRANDE — A new academic and athletic center is in the La Grande School District's future.

This is now a certainty after voters on Tuesday, May 17, approved a $4.545 million bond levy, Measure 31-105, which will provide funding for the construction of a new academic and athletic center. It will replace the aging Annex gym adjacent to La Grande Middle School.

Measure 31-105 was approved by 58.65% of voters. The unofficial final tally was 2,740 for the bond 1,932 against, according to 1 a.m. results from the Union County Clerk's Office.

La Grande School District Superintendent George Mendoza credited the successful bond campaign to amazing work by his staff and community volunteers.

"When you have the right people at the right spot at the right time it is hard not to be successful," Mendoza said at a May 17 election reception at the La Grande Country Club.

The superintendent said he became more confident about the outcome of the election as he gave presentations about the bond levy.

"There were too many reasons to say yes," he said.

Lance Rinker, a community volunteer for the bond campaign, said he and others were inspired to work hard because everyone knew how much the new building would mean to the school district's students.

"They are our future. They are why we do this. Kids are our hope," he said.

Passage of Measure 31-105 means the La Grande School District will have a total of $8.545 million available to construct the academic and athletic center because it will also receive a $4 million Oregon School Capital Improvement Matching program grant from the state to help fund the construction of the new building. The school district would not have received the matching grant if Measure 31-105 had failed.

No tax increase

Passage of the bond levy will not raise the taxes of the district's property owners because of the recent refinancing of the 20-year, $31.5 million bond voters approved in 2014 in the La Grande School District for capital construction and maintenance.

The $1.93 tax rate per $1,000 of accessed property value now being paid for school district bond taxes will remain the same. The length of time taxpayers will be making bond payments will also remain the same with the passage of Measure 31-105, meaning taxpayers will make payments through 2035.

Had voters rejected Measure 31-105, property owners in the La Grande School District would have seen see their taxes drop 28 cents to $1.65 per $1,000 of assessed property value because they would be paying only for the refinanced $31.5 million bond.

For example, the owner of a $150,000 home would have paid $42 less a year in property taxes and the owner of a $200,000 home would be spending $56 dollars less a year in taxes.

Mendoza said he began working on the bond project in 2017 and that throughout the process, Chris Panike, who retired as the La Grande School District's budget director at the end of June 2021, has been assisting him. Mendoza said Panike's assistance was instrumental to the success of the project.

"Chris has been close to me during all of the process," he said.

The new building the bond package will fund will be at the approximate site of the current Annex gym, northwest of the La Grande Middle School. The Annex gym, which is about nine decades old, will be torn down.

Goodbye to bad acoustics

Those who will not miss working in the old gym include La Grande Middle School physical education teacher Melinda Becker-Bisenius, who said that teaching in the old gym is difficult in part because its poor acoustics require her to shout frequently in order to be heard, something that has been hard on her voice.

Mendoza said that Becker-Bisenius inspired him to work hard to pursue the bond project.

"I wanted you to have a better work environment," Mendoza told her during the reception.

Scott Carpenter, the La Grande School District's assistant superintendent, said the success of the bond campaign is in large part a credit to Mendoza's ability to continue focusing on it despite the many things that happen on a daily basis that could have distracted him.

"I am amazed at his ability to hold on to that dream," Carpenter said.

Dick Mason is a reporter with The Observer primarily covering the communities of North Powder, Imbler, Island City and Union, education, Union County veterans programs and local history. Dick joined The Observer in 1983, first working as a sports and outdoors reporter.