GERVAIS, Ore. — The Gervais School District could be forced to shut down if it’s not able to pass a bond measure for infrastructure upgrades. Since 1990, the district has tried to pass a measure eight times. All were voted down by constituents. Though now school board members said they would close the district, if a ninth measure fails.
"We don't want to go anywhere else,” Krysteena Leimbach, a mother of two Gervais elementary schoolers said. “We love it here."
Leimbach’s family has a long lineage of attending Gervais schools. Her husband's grandmother attended the school district, graduating in 1955. Leimbach said that little has changed since her husband’s grandmother went through the school system.
Superintendent Dandy Stevens has been trying to renovate the schools for years. She said the elementary school needs all new electric panels, a new roof and a replacement to an old radiator system. A boiler room is also completely inefficient, Stevens said.
In some places, the roof leaks, and in one classroom the district has been forced to cover a hole in the ceiling with plywood, because kids were becoming scared by the hole.
The measure would also replace a high school roof, which contractors have told the district is beyond repair, Stevens said. It would also create a middle school building. Currently middle school operates out of two portable units.
“It will definitely bring all three buildings up to where they need to be for a 21st century education,” Stevens said of the bond measure.
However, if the bond measure doesn’t pass, 870 students who attend Gervais would be funneled to five neighboring school districts. Those school districts all have higher taxes for schools, which means Gervais constituents would actually pay those districts more than they would the Gervais School District, if the measure passed.
"So it would be really heartbreaking for that to happen,” Stevens said.
The bond measure would cost the average homeowner around $300 per year, Stevens added.
"I can't imagine them anywhere else," Leimbach said of her kids.
It would also mean many staff members would likely lose their jobs. Ballots are expected to be sent to voters in the next few weeks. Voting ends May 21.