Board of Education tries to shake 42-year curse

Students, staff, and community members of the Mt. Hood service district, grab your flags and have your No. 2 pencils at the ready: It’s campaign time.

The MHCC Board of Education on Wednesday voted, 5-2, to place a $125 million bond measure on the May 17 ballot.

If approved by voters, the bond would support major facility and education improvements at the Gresham and Maywood Park campuses.

It’s a big step, given Mt. Hood has not won passage of a bond measure in 42 years.

“The last time we passed a general obligation bond was in 1974, I was in high school,” said Debbie Derr, Mt. Hood president.

A bond measure effort has been discussed by school leaders for years, and will finally become a reality.

Before its vote Wednesday, the board heard a detailed briefing from Paige Richardson, co-founder of local political consulting firm Springwater Partners, who was hired to guide Mt. Hood’s bond campaign.

Richardson shared a PowerPoint presentation to describe results of internal and community surveys on a bond attempt, most recently from December. She began with how voters may look and “sound” with regards to the bond.

Their will be significant education needed to win over voters, many of whom are not aware that many of Mt. Hood buildings are out of date and may have safety concerns, especially seismically related concerns, Richardson said.

Other important findings from a survey of hundreds of potential voters:

– 83 percent of people recognize that MHCC is an organization, and people are proud to have it in their community;

– Just over half of voters believe MHCC’s buildings and facilities are out-of-date;

– Typically, May elections attract more older voters, a challenging subgroup when it comes to passing a bond;

– Nearly 6-in-10 voters are willing to pay more in taxes, if there are strict accountability measures in place.

Richardson told the board the bond measure can win approval if MHCC holds its current 45 percent ‘Yes’ support and brings in 6 percent or more of the undecided.

She said promotion of the bond will target undecided voters and “soft base voters” (i.e., swing voters). Mt. Hood does not have expendable time or resources to move the voters who are already saying ‘No’ on the measure to the pro-bond side, she explained.

Richardson said the estimated annual property tax increase resulting from bond approval is 30 cents per $1,000 of assessed value. That would be about $60 in annual taxes for a home with $200,000 assessed value.

After Marilyn Pitts, president of the part-time faculty association at MHCC, said her group backed the measure, it was time for a formal vote of the board members.

Board chair Susie Jones, vice-chair Jim Zordich, and recently elected members Teena Ainslie, Kenney Polson and Tamie Arnold all voted “yes” to a May ballot measure.

The MHCC main campus is “50 years old, limiting what it is providing students” in learning opportunities and technology, Zordich said. He said voters “want the community to participate in the future of this organization.”

Jones noted that Mt. Hood could lose $8 million in matching construction funds if it doesn’t get a bond approved in 2016.

Ainslie added that “we need to get the earthquake (-resistant) foundation put into place at MHCC.”

However, board members Michael Calcagno and Sonny Yellott both voted against a May bond measure.

Calcagno said he was deeply concerned there isn’t enough time, just 13.5 weeks remaining, to reach and to convince voters of Mt. Hood’s needs.

“We need a much more serious and robust effort, if we want this – if we really want this,” Calcagno said. “It pains me to say that I would be voting ‘No,’ but I sincerely believe that we need a longer runway” to get this (effort) off the ground, he said.

Calcagno added that he “loves Mt. Hood Community College. I think it’s a beacon of hope and we’re (the board) here to be good stewards” of the school for the community.

Derr said that if MHCC were to seek extension of the state matching fund eligibility (and so delay a bond measure effort, the college would have to get approval by the Oregon Legislature first, and that would be difficult.

She urged the board to push forward, and go for the May ballot.

“We (MHCC) believe that now is the time to move forward with a bond … moving forward will be the May election,” Derr said.

“We are in campaign mode.”

Fred Sanchez, a local real estate business owner and a leader of the Friends of Mt. Hood Bond Planning Political Action Committee (PAC), expressed strong support for the cause.

The committee has raised more than $53,000 to date, state elections records show, with more fundraising work to come.

“I promise you, that I and our committee, will do everything in our power to spread the word and get an overwhelming ‘Yes’ from the electorate,” Sanchez told the board.