The Beaverton School District put $723 million in bonds on the ballot in May

The money will go into six main groups: modernization, deferred maintenance, security and other equipment, additional capacity, technology and seismic upgrades.

BEVERTON, OR – The May election is approaching and there will be some big action on the ballot. One of them will affect every school in the Beaverton School District.

The proposed $723 million, 30-year bond will mean various upgrades and projects for each of the 53 schools in the district.

Becky Timchuk is Vice Chair of the Beaverton School Board and also chairs the county bondholders. If the bond is passed, she said, the money would go to six major school improvement groups: modernization, deferred maintenance, security and other equipment, additional capacity, technology and seismic upgrades.

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“We live in the Pacific Northwest, where we have been told for years and years that sometime, somewhere, there will be a major earthquake. It is just a matter of time,” Timchuk said.

That’s why she said it’s imperative that the district begin work on making about 40 schools older than code. Currently, only 13 people meet the criteria for earthquake preparedness, according to the 2019 Seismic Assessment.

In a video of the area, the area’s construction project manager, Eric Bolkin, used Legos to highlight the dangers of not making seismic upgrades to older buildings.

“When the ground shakes in the aftermath of an earthquake, structures tend to tip over,” Bolkin said in the video.

He showed that adding a shear wall would help strengthen buildings, using a Lego set to show the difference between a building without a shear wall and one with one.

“Now with the same movement taking place, the sternum wall remains, and the unsupported wall still does,” Bolkin noted.

Bolkin said the bond money will also go toward making sure that the new buildings connected to the old ones can collectively withstand the earthquake.

“We are not only trying to bring the old structures up to the current code level, but also making sure that the entire building works together,” he said.

“We have a moral duty as a school board and a school district to invest in safe buildings for our students and staff,” Timchuk said.

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The bond will also pay for the complete rebuilding of Raleigh Hills K-8 School as well as Beaverton High School.

“We have Beaverton High School that is 105 years old. Parts of it are still 105 years old,” Timchuk said, adding that Raleigh Hills is about 75 years old.

If passed, for an estimated property value of $303,021, the estimated tax increase would be approximately $76 for the first year. The proposed bond will appear on taxpayers’ property tax bills for the next 30 years, but construction projects will be completed within seven years.

The Frequently Asked Questions page on the Beaverton School District bond website provides more information about what people can expect over the years.

“Because of the way the debt service schedule has been set up, the effective tax rate for this proposed bond will decrease over time,” the county wrote on its website.

While the bond means different projects across all schools in the area, it is the oldest schools with the most urgent need that will receive seismic upgrades. This covers six schools: Cedar Park, Five Oaks, Highland Park, Meadow Park, Mountain View and Whitford Middle Schools. More schools will be upgraded in years to be subject to different bond proposals.

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