Most Ore. school money measures pass; not Sisters

School bond and local option levies were mostly successful statewide Tuesday, reversing trends from a year ago, though in Central Oregon, a Sisters school bond measure was defeated.

Six of nine K-12 school districts passed bonds, including Colton, Dallas, Klamath Falls City Schools, La Grande, Springfield and West Linn-Wilsonville. Bonds failed passage in Corbett, Silver Falls and Sisters. All three community college bonds passed: Clackamas CC, Clatsop CC and Linn-Benton CC.

All six local option levies on the ballot passed easily, in Crow-Applegate, Eugene, Falls City, Portland, Tigard-Tualatin and West Linn-Wilsonville.

In November 2013, only three of 13 districts statewide were able to pass school bonds; one of two local option levies passed.

Betsy Miller-Jones, executive director of the Oregon School Boards Association, thanked local voters for investing in their schools, and said OSBA plans to focus legislative efforts in 2015 on finding statewide solutions for replacing and upgrading outdated school buildings.

A full listing of school election results can be found at http://www.osba.org/Resources/Article/Budget_and_Finance/Election-Recent_Bond-Local_Option_Election_Results.aspx?d=11/4/2014

OSBA is a member services organization for more than 200 locally elected boards serving school districts, education service districts and community colleges. It also provides services to charter schools and their boards.