Eugene School District 4J agenda: The future of North Eugene High, limiting board debate

Miranda Cyr, Register-Guard
·3 min read
The Eugene School District 4J Board of Directors meets in the district office for a regular meeting on Jan. 18, 2023. Four board members attended in person.
The Eugene School District 4J Board of Directors meets in the district office for a regular meeting on Jan. 18, 2023. Four board members attended in person.

The Eugene School District 4J Board of Directors is scheduled to meet in a public regular session at 7 p.m. Wednesday.

The board will meet in a closed executive session beforehand at 5 p.m. The meetings will be held at the 4J district office, 200 N. Monroe St.

The public meeting will be streamed virtually at 4j-lane-edu.zoom.us/j/92933253616. The recorded meeting will also be uploaded to 4J's YouTube channel in the following days.

Future of North Eugene High School

The agenda includes a discussion of what to do about the original North Eugene High School building.

Currently, 4J is constructing the new NEHS on the west end of the school property, where the Silver Lea building and old high school softball field were located.

The project is one of three across the district funded by a 2018 bond. Construction on Camas Ridge Elementary began last summer. Edison Elementary has reopened after construction last fall.

The new NEHS construction is well underway. Students are still attending classes as normal in the original building until construction is complete and the new NEHS building opens this fall.

However, there is a debate about what to do with the old building.

The two main options that were briefly discussed in the Jan. 18 board meeting come down to either tearing down the original building and putting in a green zone or leaving it up and repurposing the building. 4J Superintendent Andy Dey said the district needs to make a decision by the end of February.

If the original building is repurposed, 4J estimates a cost of $30 million in deferred building maintenance, district standard upgrades and city system development charges. According to board documents, this initial estimate does not include any renovations or building modifications for a new program.

This option would also leave NEHS with about half of the field area of other district high schools.

Demolishing the original school and replacing it with fields is estimated to cost $12 million.

This option would add two grass soccer-sized fields, bringing the new NEHS field area in alignment with other district high schools. It would also make improvements to the site’s safe routes to school, according to board documents.

The original plan was to leave the original NEHS standing and renovate it for use by other programs. However, Dey said in the January meeting that more extensive evaluations of the building revealing additional upgrade needs and heightened costs of materials and labor.

Board policies

Another item on Wednesday's agenda is the ongoing discussion about board policies and Robert's Rules.

The board revised its revision again at the last meeting, looking to limit and pare down board member discussion time in an effort to shorten the length of meetings.

This topic goes back to the Dec. 7 meeting, when board vice chair Gordon Lafer requested that each board member would have two chances to speak on each topic before moving on or taking a vote on the item. The board members were willing to entertain the idea, but they didn't want to vote with two board members absent.

The five present members voted unanimously to add the item to a future agenda.

Wednesday, the policy will again be presented by chief of staff Rob Hess.

The revised proposal states "motions will all be seconded prior to consideration for discussion by the board, motions to close or limit debate will be acceptable, and discussion on any topic will end after each member has had two opportunities to speak, unless a motion is made, seconded and approved to extend debate on the topic."

Other items on Wednesday's agenda include:

  • Student achievement recognition: State championship for Sheldon High School girls volleyball team.

  • Receive reports from high school student representatives.

  • Vote on Lane Education Service District service contract.

  • Receive presentation on instruction department goals and Student Investment Account strategies.

Miranda Cyr reports on education for The Register-Guard. You can contact her at mcyr@registerguard.com or find her on Twitter @mirandabcyr.

This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: Eugene 4J board agenda: Future of North Eugene High School