How did they do it? Beaverton School District revisits the

ISSUE 38
F U N D I N G S T R AT E G I E S
How did they do it?
Beaverton School District revisits the path to passing
Oregon’s largest-ever school bond measure
With nearly 40,000 students and 51
schools, Beaverton School District is the
3rd largest school district in Oregon – and
one of the fastest growing. Since 2006,
Beaverton School District’s enrollment has
increased by over 2,600 students. Three
of the district’s five comprehensive high
schools are over 100% capacity, as are two
middle schools and fourteen elementary
schools.
THINK BIG
When the Beaverton School District decided
to put a bond package before voters in the
May 2014 election, they made no small
plans. At $680 million, Beaverton School
District set a new statewide record for
the largest bond amount ever requested
from Oregon voters. And the citizen’s
advocacy group supporting the district’s
bond package set its own record by raising
$300,000, which is the largest amount of
money ever spent on a campaign in the
Beaverton School District.
1 B E AV E R T O N S C H O O L D I S T R I C T
The bond package was years in the
making and designed to support the
District’s Strategic Plan and Educational
Specifications which are in service to the
Beaverton School District Goal:
All students will show
continuous progress toward
their personal learning goals,
developed in collaboration with
teachers and parents, and will
be prepared for post-secondary
education and career success.
Given the Beaverton School District’s
emphasis on clear and focused
measurements towards defined outcomes,
it was essential that the district’s bond
package strategically align efforts and
resources to maintain this high level of
dedication to all students’ success—AND
win support from a majority of voters in
the election.
LAY THE FOUNDATION
“In 2010, we created a Long Range
Facilities Plan to look out 15 years at
enrollment, facility repair and maintenance
needs, and new capacity needs. This was
the foundational document for all of the
work we did planning the 2014 bond
package.“
Dick Steinbrugge, P.E., Executive
Administrator for Facilities, Beaverton
School District
Four years prior to running the bond
measure, the district undertook a
comprehensive long range facilities plan
to analyze backlog and forecast repair and
renovation needs for existing buildings. All
buildings were inspected by maintenance
staff over a 3-year period. The district also
consulted with Portland State University to
do a demographic study to forecast future
capacity needs.
The Steering Committee determined that
there were four school buildings to tear
down and replace and three new schools
for capacity, in addition to district-wide
repairs and renovations. At this point, the
list of potential projects was nearly $1
billion.
A Bond Community Involvement
Committee (BCIC) comprised of district
residents, businesses, parents, community
partners such as the City of Beaverton,
Washington County and Tualatin Park
& Recreation District and teachers and
principals was formed to develop capital
project recommendations to present to
Superintendent Jeff Rose.
The Long Range Facilities Plan
recommended developing criteria for
determining the break point between
continuing to invest in old buildings
versus replacement. That analysis was
accomplished during the bond project
development work. A facility ranking score
was developed to convert the information
to a numerical ranking system as a first cut
to prioritize all facility needs for the much
needed bond package.
Concurrently with developing the initial
prioritized project list, the facilities
group worked on a process they called
“sharpening the tools” to effectively deliver
construction projects. Their updated tool
kit included new software for project
management, improved technical design
standards, and new construction contract
language. New educational specifications
at each level were also developed to
define program requirements and space
requirements in schools.
The district held informal meetings with
architects and contractors to discuss
expectations for design, quality assurance,
and shared tools such as Building
Information Modeling (BIM) software.
2 M A H L U M : : F U N D I N G S T R AT E G I E S
FILTER THE BIG LIST
“This was a huge ask to our voters – we
needed an extremely high level of detail
on what would be accomplished and we
needed to distill the complex message
down to simple, meaningful information.”
Ron Porterfield, Deputy Superintendent,
Beaverton School District
Realizing that much work was required to
be ready for a bond election, Beaverton
School District started an intense process
18 months prior to its targeted election
date.
A Steering Committee of Beaverton School
District senior staff members guided
the bond program’s development. This
group was representative of the entire
district and charged with project filtering
and ranking to identify the essential few
projects that absolutely had to be included
in the package.
Using six criteria elements and a scoring
system, the Steering Committee narrowed
down a list of projects for BCIC input on
the bond package; which was partly a
political question of what voters would
support and partly a financial question of
what the district needed.
Over the next eight year period, the district
was in a position to retire a series of
previously approved capital bonds, making
available an estimated $680 million in
bonding capacity without an increase to
current tax rates. This strategy reflected a
conscious decision on the part of past and
present Beaverton School Boards to phase
capital bond requests to maintain a level
tax rate.
As the BCIC deliberated the various
packages, they had difficulty staying at
$680 million and proposed adding more to
the overall package. However, that would
have changed the strategy to stay at the
level where patrons would not experience
a tax rate increase and the BCIC felt that
managing debt this way would be very
persuasive. It was also important that the
bond measure pass the first time so that
the tax rate didn’t fall and then increase
later due to passing a future bond.
The district provided informational tools
including:
:: A one page fold out summary and flyers to
communicate the projects
:: A pie chart illustrating how nearly $100
million for repair projects would be spent
:: School-specific fact sheets with bullet
points explaining what each school would
get from the bond measure
:: Project sheets with scope of work, cost
estimates and conceptual designs
:: Display boards unique for each school
building lobby featuring pockets with
handouts
:: A robust website which still has lots of
information and periodic updates on the
bond package
:: Information translated into multiple
languages customized for each school’s
demographic
The BCIC held public meetings, visited
school sites and developed a color-coded
spreadsheet that was a very helpful tool.
Anything in yellow on the spreadsheet
was an essential project but the other
line items could be moved around as an
interactive tool that would immediately
show how different choices affected
the bottom line. The final result was
summarized on a single page that became
the BCIC’s recommendation to the
Superintendent.
Other steps in defining the bond package
included conducting a scientific poll in
which voters were asked questions about
how their schools were doing, the types
of projects being proposed and support
for an eight vs. two, four-year bond
programs. The poll results showed a small
variance in the level of support so the
BCIC recommended an eight-year bond
program.
DOCUMENT AND COMMUNICATE
CITIZEN ADVOCACY
“Communication and clarity made a big
difference. We worked hard to make it
very clear that every school would get
something while keeping the same tax
rate over the next eight years.”
“Board leadership is essential in driving
the advocacy work to pass a bond
measure.”
Maureen Wheeler, Public Communications
Officer, Communications & Community
Involvement, Beaverton School District
Because Beaverton’s bond was so large
and complex, the district took special care
to document for its staff and community
exactly what would happen. In order to
get it down to sound bites that could be
explored in more detail, the district defined
the program as:
::: Modernization
::: New Capacity
::: Technology
In all communication, the district
maintained consistent organization within
the three categories, explaining that the
majority (55%) of the bond projects were
for modernization, 35% for new capacity
and 10% for technology.
3 B E AV E R T O N S C H O O L D I S T R I C T
Linda Degman, Board Member and cochair of YES campaign
The citizen advocacy committee, YES FOR
BEAVERTON SCHOOLS, was dedicated to
persuading voters to support the bond
measure. Realizing that an organized and
sophisticated campaign was required,
they engaged a professional campaign
consultant.
Building on the great work from the
district’s facilities group, scientific poll, and
informational communications, the YES
group focused key messages to convince
voters; with a goal to keep the messages
simple and focused on mitigating concerns
about taxes.
The BCIC members’ community
connections were invaluable as BCIC
members partnered with YES group
members on fundraising calls. Garnering
support from both teachers’ and classified
staff associations was essential for
financial support and assistance with
factual communication. By reaching out to
its typical audience, as well as people they
hadn’t tapped before such as construction
trades, the YES group raised double their
previous fundraising record for a total
of $300,000 to support the advocacy
campaign.
School Board members were tapped to
go out in to the community and convince
people to support the bond measure,
as well as the eight rather than fouryear term. The YES group earned key
endorsements from the local Chamber
of Commerce, local park and recreation
district, and the local community
newspaper. The Voter’s Pamphlet was
identified as one of the most persuasive
campaign tools, so the YES group filed a
dozen different support arguments in the
pamphlet from a variety of individuals and
groups.
Other tools employed were:
:: Captains at each school assigned to mobilize volunteers
:: Door knocking for face-to-face conversations
:: Phone banking (which is perceived by the
YES group as less effective than it used to
be)
:: Professionally-produced and phased postcard mailers to targeted voters
:: Social media utilizing Facebook and Twitter
:: Advertisements on Pandora streaming
radio
:: Links to other simultaneous campaigns to
leverage delivery of YES information to a
broader audience
4 M A H L U M : : F U N D I N G S T R AT E G I E S
ELECTION OUTCOME
“We are so grateful to our community for
being supportive and valuing education
– you have to build that all the time, not
just at a bond election.”
LeeAnn Larson, Board Member and cochair of YES campaign
With no organized opposition and strong
poll numbers, the key to election success
was to get enough voters to turnout and
cast ballots. On election night, the early
returns were not decisive but as the night
progressed, the YES votes grew stronger,
leading to an eventual 55% passage of the
largest bond measure in Oregon’s history.
LESSONS LEARNED
No matter how large or small your
school district or bond package may
be, Beaverton’s team summarized the
following lessons learned from their recent
success passing a bond measure:
:: Plan Ahead - The Long Range Facility
Plan was the foundation for Beaverton’s
success
:: Start Early - Beaverton’s project development process started about 18 months
before the election
:: Spend Money Upfront - The district passed
a reimbursement resolution which allowed
them to use expert consulting support in
the upfront planning and then reimburse
those funds once the bond passed
:: Involve Everyone - It was important to include both district leadership and community members in the steering committees
:: Control with Flexibility - The Bond
Community Involvement Committee was
empowered to make important choices
within specific parameters - if something
came in, something went out to maintain
the funding capacity
:: Use Data - Critical data was used from
beginning to end to drive what was viable
and to force trade-off scenarios
:: Document Commitments - Help district
employees and voters understand exactly
how the money will be spent
:: Share Information - make the complex details available to everyone (district website)
but keep communications clear and brief
:: Keep Going After Election Day - accountability, transparency and continued communication are important once voters have
approved the measure; establish a community-based accountability committee
Learn more and follow the Beaverton
construction bond progress:
https://www.beaverton.k12.or.us/district/bondmeasure-information
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