The district originally presented a list of facilities needs totaling about $500 million. Why did the bond proposal get reduced to $242 million?
A. Salem-Keizer did a two-year in-depth analysis of our school facilities and future enrollment growth. Based on this, more than $500 million in key repairs, renovations, updates and need for new schools was identified. We presented this information to our community in early January and February 2008. The feedback from the community said they understood the need, but felt $500 million was too much. They asked our Board to focus on repairs and updates, and scale down the number of new schools. The School Board kept all the most urgent repairs and updates on the construction bond proposal and reduced the number of new schools to four (one middle school and three elementary schools).
