Oregon Town Approves Levy to Open Schools

This small town’s schools will reopen today after a one-month closure, a “crisis” the education superintendent said was necessary to get voters to approve a tax levy for operating funds.

“It was a horrible exercise to have to go through, but that was the reality,” Clark Lund, superintendent of the 1,400-student Sandy Elementary School District, said Wednesday.

The district’s middle school and three grade schools were closed Nov. 7 after voters rejected a property-tax levy for the third time in a year. But the $2.2-million levy was approved Tuesday by a tally of 1,728 to 1,440.

53% Turnout

Lund cited “a shameful amount of participation at the polls” for the earlier defeats of the tax measure, which last lost by only 35 votes. Voter turnout was 53% Tuesday, 11 percentage points higher than in the previous election.

“Only when the issue was approaching a crisis did people start to pay attention,” he said.

State aid accounts for only about a third of operating money for the Sandy district, just east of Portland, and most others. Many other districts in the state have been hurt by a recession-caused decline in revenue from logging on public lands.

Deficits Prohibited

Oregon school districts are prevented by law from operating with a deficit. Those, like Sandy, without an adequate tax base must return to voters each year for approval of school levies.

Sandy was the eighth Oregon school district to close temporarily for lack of money since 1976. Two other districts, in Gresham and Albany, narrowly averted closure Tuesday when their tax measures were approved.