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When heavy snow and rain fell last week on Sisters, some of it didn't stop at
the roof of the Sisters Elementary School. It went right on through the flat
roof of the gym, serving only to remind school officials again of the
district's money problems.
Before the storm hit school board chairman Bill Reed was complaining that the
budget has been so tight that the district had to make a choice between school
maintenance and teaching staff. He said the board opted for retaining staff
positions and let "important maintenance like fixing leaky roofs" go. The rains
came soon afterward, as though summoned to illustrate the point.
There were leaks throughout the district, including one at Cloverdale where a
porch roof simply split under the weight of rain-sodden snow. Major leaks
occurred at the elementary school. Superintendent Steve Swisher said the
problem was in an eight-year-old roof that was supposed to be good for 30
years.
Getting significant repair work done on school roofs may have to wait a long
time.
Swisher said the district had planned to include maintenance project costs in a
school bond package next March. The constitutional amendment brought on by
Measure 47 cuts such projects out of bond measures altogether, except in major
natural catastrophes like earthquakes and major floods.
The district had hoped to ask voters to approve the sale of bonds to
finance school construction to alleviate overcrowding. The maintenance projects
were to be included. The bond issue has been postponed altogether due
to another provision in the constitutional amendment that nullifies money
measures that are voted on by fewer than 51 percent of registered voters.
The construction bond measure has been put off until the general election in
the fall of 1998. The maintenance costs have been forced back to the school
general fund, already creaking under the pressures of tax limits imposed by the
five-year-old Measure 5.
