Bond Information - Tillamook School District 9

Bond Q & A

What is the Tillamook School District 2025 Bond?

Measure 29-182 will create a Tillamook School District 2025 bond that will finance critical safety and improvement projects to various district facilities. Projects have been prioritized based on safe schools, healthy students, and responsible stewardship.

What will the bond fund?

The 2025 bond will be not exceed a $25.35 million extension of current expiring bonds. If passed, an additional $6 million grant will be awarded from the Oregon School Capital Improvement Match Funds.

NOT A NEW TAX!

This bond not a new tax. This bond extension should maintain the current tax rate of $0.69 per $1,000 of assessed property value.

If passed, what would the bond help do?

Enhance safety, security, and accessibility
Improve parking areas and bus lanes
Add classroom and education spaces, cafeteria expansion, and library enhancements
Improve student wellness and athletic facilities
Add playground equipment and structures
Replace of heating/ventilation units
Replace underground fuel tanks and gas pumps
General property improvements such as fencing, signage, restrooms, roofing, carpeting, and lighting

FAQ's

How much money will the proposed bond raise for TSD9?

Not to exceed $25.35 million in bonds and $6 million in State match.

What will the bond money be spent on?
- Safety and facility improvements to Tillamook School District facilities
What are some project examples?
- Renovations to secure main building entries at all Tillamook School District schools.
- Replacement and repair to Liberty Elementary School and Tillamook High School roof.
- Renovation and expansion of cafeteria at East Elementary School.
- Construction of an auxiliary gym building at Tillamook Junior High School.
- Expand classrooms at multiple schools.
- Construct athletics field house and restrooms at Tillamook High School.
When is the election?
- Tuesday, May 20, 2025
How do I register to vote? https://sos.oregon.gov/voting/pages/registration.aspx?lang=en
How long will the bond last?
- Bonds may be issued in series: each maturing within 21 years from issuance.

Project Priorities: Liberty Elementary School

When it comes to some of the youngest students in the district, there’s a growing need to create an even safer environment at Liberty Elementary School. After assessments of the building, there are concerns about access to the school’s front entrance, growing gaps in the playground’s exterior fencing, and a fire alarm system on the brink of failure. All of these safety issues have been labeled as priority projects that could utilize funds created from the Tillamook School Bond 2025.

Currently, the main entrance to the building locks with a doorbell system to admit visitors.

“Beyond that, it’s kind of our limit. It would be important to have a system that allows us to identify people and determine whether to allow them in or not,” Liberty Elementary School Principal Rachel Williamson said. “With the orientation of the office and the front door, sometimes when the lighting is poor or the sun is glaring on the window, you can’t really see who is pushing the doorbell and requesting to come in.”

Outside the building, recess for kindergarteners and first graders is vital with Liberty students sometimes accessing the outdoor playground area two-three times a day. But, some of the fencing shows increasing areas of failing infrastructure.

“The current fencing was generously donated by a community organization about 10 years ago, but it is residential fencing,” Williamson said. “Residential fencing is great as long as you’re not trying to contain 200 to 300 six year olds daily; they can wear a fence down. As we’ve tried to repair and shore it up, the integrity of the fence is lost and it’s creating gaps on the bottom where kids can crawl through and make their own plan on the other side of the fence.”

The fence line with the biggest deterioration borders the fields adjacent to the Tillamook County Family YMCA.

“During the school day, community members use this area for their dogs and we want to make sure that students remain on our side of the fence for their own safety, and so they’re not interacting with dogs that they don’t know.”

Another priority for the school building is to address restroom needs. Currently, students have access to two sets of restrooms on the south end of the building.

“The majority of the classrooms use those restrooms. It would be really handy if we had a set of restrooms down at the north end of the building,” Williamson said. “Most of the kindergarteners have to walk down the hallway to use a restroom and it would be helpful if they were close to where the students’ classrooms are. It also helps minimize issues when they’re not waiting in line to use an available restroom.”

Lack of adult restrooms in the building is another noted need. For 52 employees at Liberty Elementary School, there are two, single toilet restrooms.

“One of the two restrooms for adults is also utilized by some of our students who have additional needs,” Williamson said. “So really, it’s like there are one and half adult restrooms. Adding one or two adult restrooms would be helpful to support the adults who work in the north end of the building.”

The school building also has a fire alarm system that is in need of an upgrade. Part of the system has received updates through the years, while other parts of the system are grandfathered in and not up to today’s code. Williamson said there are multiple classrooms that do not have an actual alarm inside the room.

“A couple years ago I had them set off the alarm so I could go into the classrooms and see if I could hear them. There’s nothing in the classroom to signal that there is an alarm going off,” she said. “When you’re working and engaged in learning with students, they can tend to get a little bit loud. If you’re really focused on that and there’s a very low ding of an alarm out in the hall, that’s not going to trigger awareness of an emergency. That’s a huge concern, so we definitely need an upgrade.”

Tillamook School District has filed for a bond measure to be on the upcoming May ballot. Measure 29-182 will create a Tillamook School District 2025 bond that will finance critical safety and improvement projects to various district facilities. Projects have been prioritized based on safe schools, healthy students, and responsible stewardship. The 2025 bond will be not exceed a $25.35 million extension of current expiring bonds. If passed, an additional $6 million grant will be awarded from the Oregon School Capital Improvement Match Funds. This bond is not a new tax. This bond extension should maintain the current tax rate of $0.69 per $1,000 of assessed property value.

Bond Priority Projects: District-wide

Sometimes, daily upkeep and maintenance is not enough. Thorough inspections of all Tillamook School District’s facilities revealed several areas of need that require large repairs including: updates to school building roofs, repaving of parking lots and bus lanes, and upgrading all interior lighting to LED fixtures. All of these items are proposed priority projects that could utilize funds created from the Tillamook School Bond 2025.

The Tillamook High School three-tab single roof was installed in 2007 and is in need of replacement.

“A roof is the first guard to the weather and it’s like a protection envelope,” Tillamook School District Maintenance Supervisor Jay Marugg said. “The roof [at Tillamook High School] is near the end of its lifespan. They’ve only been patching it.”

Liberty Elementary School also has sections of roofing that has lost its integrity.

“Part of Liberty’s roof leaks here and there through the HVAC units,” Marugg said. “We’ve been trying to get that fixed for years. It’s just one of those leaks that keeps haunting you. It’s in the hallway and it drips.”

Marugg also mentioned that a portion of Liberty’s gym roof has evidence of a leak. A section of that roof will be repaired using Oregon’s seismic retrofit grant (separate pool of money from that potentially created from a bond). Those repairs are expected to happen during the summer of 2026.

“If you don’t fix a roof, like at the high school where it has soft plywood, that will not only take out your sheeting, but if you let it go it will also take the framing and roof trusses out. So structurally, it has to be dried in.”

The condition of parking lots and bus lanes are also of concern. There are proposed projects to re-pave the existing bus lanes at South Prairie Elementary School and Tillamook Junior High School, and re-pave existing parking lots at Tillamook High School, the Tillamook Vocational Center building, and the district office.

“All the paving at the high school and the vocational building is just patched together. There are big holes and it’s a safety issue,” Marugg said. “Between the east wing and the high school, there are bumps and trip hazards. It’s getting really bad. South Prairie is probably the worst.”

Out at the district’s transportation building (located at the Port of Tillamook Bay), the bus yard is currently gravel. A proposed project would be to pave the entire lot.

“When the busses go by, it kicks up so much dust,” Marugg said. “It’s hard on the brakes and on the air filters; they’re replacing air filters all the time. So, if you do the math, that would really pay for itself eventually.”

The above ground fuel tanks at the transportation building are also past their lifespan.

“They’re 44 years old and have big rust spots on them. The inside is rusting too, so we’re getting rust in our fuel,” Marugg said. “We’re constantly replacing filters for that as well.”

Another large proposed project is to upgrade all interior lighting, district-wide, to LED fixtures. Currently, most district facilities have fluorescent light bulbs, of which replacements for them are no longer manufactured nor can legally be sold in the state of Oregon.

Marugg said that there are options to retrofit LED light bulbs into the ballast of the old fluorescent lights. However, when the ballast fails, an electrician needs to directly wire an LED light bulb in.

“It’s a huge undertaking. Probably only one percent of lights in the district have been retrofitted. And not everyone can do it, you have to have a certified electrician.”

If the Tillamook School Bond 2025 passes, Marugg estimates that a majority of the proposed priority projects could be completed within five years.

Bond Priority Projects: Tillamook High School Athletics Field House

A lot has changed for Tillamook athletics since 1951. More sports, more athletes, and more gear. And the current Tillamook High School Athletics Field House was just not built with expansion in mind.

A newly constructed athletic field house is a proposed priority project for Tillamook High School that could utilize funds created from the Tillamook School Bond 2025.

The current facility, located on the east end of Doc Adams Field, is currently utilized to store football, soccer, track & field, and other miscellaneous athletic equipment.

“We’re just out of space, period,” Tillamook High School Athletic Director Kye Johnson said. “We don’t have enough space to store everything in this room. One sport’s stuff always has to be out.”

Johnson walked through the logistics: during the fall when all the football stuff is out, the track and field equipment is stored. But, as soon as track season wraps up near summer, the football gear is pulled back out to make room.

“There's more wear and tear on all the equipment as a result of that,” Johnson said.

The majority of equipment is stored on the north end of the building, closed in by a garage door. The entire building currently does not have functioning light fixtures; and the south end of the building is essentially unusable.

“The other side of the field house is not meant for storage. We treat it as an overflow room, but it’s dirty, there’s a non-functioning bathroom, and the windows are broken. It’s neglected and remained untouched for a long time. We’re trying to make the most out of it, but it's definitely not a quality space by any means. It’s not a place to safely store equipment.”

The track and field programs at the high school and junior high have spent the last couple years upgrading equipment including the purchase of a new high jump pit and a new set of hurdles. The football program has valuable equipment that needs to be stored out of the elements. And the school’s soccer goals have to be stored elsewhere.

“If you buy new things, in order to save that investment, you have to store it correctly and care for it,” Johnson said. “It’s hard to get kids excited about sports when all their equipment stinks from the moisture it’s stored in. So, it’s been a process.”

The proposed construction for a new field house would include a building designed with intentional athletic storage, as well as the addition of restrooms that could be utilized by athletes and guests during competitions.

Bond Priority Projects: East Elementary School

Each day, East Elementary School serves approximately 450 students. It’s the second largest school in Tillamook County; requiring a huge responsibility of care, and the facility for these students is beyond capacity and outdated.

After a thorough inspection of East Elementary School’s facilities, it was revealed that several areas are in need of improvement including: addition of a new classroom, renovation to expand capacity of existing cafeteria, upgrades to playground equipment, renovation to restrooms, and increased security at the main building entrance. All of these items are proposed priority projects that could utilize funds created from the Tillamook School Bond 2025.

“We don’t have any extra space in this building,” East Elementary School Principal Kara Rhodes said. “Every nook and cranny is utilized for something. We don’t even have any storage space.”

Rhodes detailed that closets have been converted to office spaces, last school year the staffroom was used as a classroom, and one staff member even has their workspace on the stage in the south gym.

“We have all these different sections and we make it work, but it would be really nice to be able to actually breathe a little,” Rhodes said. “We just feel like we’re very crowded in every area, there’s no place to even think about spreading out. Our hope would be able to expand a little bit.”

A lack of space in the cafeteria at the school requires three separate lunch times to accommodate all students.

“We can barely fit a single grade level in the current cafeteria,” Rhodes said. “We are at max capacity. It’s really crowded which adds all sorts of other issues that comes with a bunch of kids in one small space. So, we have to be super orderly.”

Rhodes also said that three lunch services requires staff members to be away from academic-focused duties to oversee meal and recess duty for almost two hours a day.

“It’s actually really problematic that we can’t just fit everybody into our cafeteria at the same time,” she said.

Out on the playground, several pieces of equipment are in poor shape and not designed for intermediate age students.

“Our fourth graders will definitely play on some of the equipment, but the fifth and sixth graders are really not as interested,” Rhodes said. “There’s a lot that is breaking. A couple of the blue slides are even broken right now. It’s really old and outdated.”

A few pieces of equipment have been added in the last several years: a rope climbing structure and a rock wall, but other structures still remain in disrepair.

“They are several pieces that we’d had to fix in the last year or are still needing to be repaired,” Rhodes said.

The long hallways of East Elementary School have also created issues with efficiently accessing restrooms.

“We have one set of restrooms for all our sixth graders on one end of the hall, and another set for all our fourth and fifth graders,” Rhodes said. “We have so many problems in the bathroom. I would say many of our discipline problems happen because kids are messing around in the bathroom and it’s very difficult thing to monitor. They’re also not very accommodating for our students with special needs. Things like private, individual bathrooms would be beneficial.”

With so many students and staff inside the building, ensuring safety at the front entrances is critical.

“We want to make sure students are safe and the first course of action is making sure that our doors are stopping everybody that shouldn’t be here,” Rhodes said.

Currently the front doors lock and unlock via a doorbell system, but additional precautions are desired.

“It’s about putting updated technology and the ability to make sure that we can see who’s coming,” said Rhodes. “Right now, we don’t have a really clear view to the entryway. After they come into the building, we have safety precautions, but once you get in, you have access pretty much to the whole school. So, we’d like to have an area to allow visitors to enter the building, but not enter the rest of the school.”

Bond Priority Projects: South Prairie Elementary School

South Prairie Elementary School was uniquely designed. At the time of construction, open-concept learning was trending. Classrooms, or lack of, were simply designated learning spaces in a large room.

But since then, the desire for individuals classrooms has returned.

“There were not dividers for each of the classrooms, they just shared a space,” South Prairie Elementary School Principal Lonnie Eggert said. “Since then, teaches have come back to a closed spaced idea so we need to create full height walls. Currently there’s extra noises and lots of distractions for the kids. Teachers are excited about that as it’s one of the biggest items on their wish list.”

Several full height walls have already been installed to create classrooms, but there are still more that need to be added. Currently, bookshelves are in place to act as classroom dividers.

Those renovations, as well as work to secure the main building entry, repairing of the library wall, and upgrading playground equipment are just some of the proposed priority projects that could utilize funds created from the Tillamook School Bond 2025.

At the building’s entry, the front doors lock and unlock, but rely on WIFI to do so.

“We do lose service to that, so our secretaries are spending their time getting up and down and allowing visitors in. We could gain some of that time back for them to be able to do their job with updated technology,” Eggert said. “The biggest thing for us is we would like to be able to identify who’s coming into the building. Our priority is to keep students safe.”

Additional requested upgrades include repairs to the wall on the east side of the library space. At one point, a leaked caused some deterioration to the wall. The damage is very evident to those who attend or visit the school building.

“It’s just the appearance,” Eggert said. “It’s at a point where it really needs to be taken care of. You can notice it when you walk into the building and that’s not what we want for our school district. We want people to know that we’re taking care of things.”

Outside the school, students enjoy a covered play area on the west side for recess activities. But, equipment at the east playground is thought to be original to the school.

“The reason we have two separate play areas is that we try to separate the classes,” Eggert said. “Otherwise we’re going to have four classes out there at the same time, so with that many kids running around we need to separate them. If we keep that many students together, there becomes safety and behavior concerns. We really want to get the other site up to par with some more modern and safe playground equipment. It would be nice to see the kids get something new.