COOS BAY — The Coos Bay School Board opted Monday night to go ahead with a bond request for voters in November, as recommended by a school committee — but with a couple of changes.

The Schools for the Future committee had advised the district rebuild Eastside Elementary School and add classrooms at Madison Elementary School in Empire. But in a surprise move, the board members decided to ask voters to pass a bond to allow construction of Eastside Elementary and also for a new Madison School. And in another surprise change, the board decided Harding Learning Center would escape the wrecking ball and opted not to make any improvements at Blossom Gulch Elementary School.

The board requested staff to draft a resolution for a $59.95 million bond measure to put on the November ballot. If passed, it would finance construction of two new $20 million elementary schools, in Eastside and Empire.

Additional renovations also would be made to the district’s remaining facilities — except Blossom Gulch and Harding. Repairs were deemed too costly at Harding, while unstable land at Blossom Gulch made renovations there ill-advised, Chairwoman Kathy Murray said.

The decision was a final curveball following a series of discussions that floated ideas ranging from additions at Madison to tearing down Harding.  

The School Board’s decision was in response to a recommendation provided by a committee appointed to evaluate the district’s school buildings. Headed by Ron Opitz and Bob Huggins, it inspected buildings, examined the results of a phone survey and ultimately supported a bond no greater than $60 million. Anything more would risk failure at the ballot box, the committee’s recommendation stated.

The committee proposed a $59.8 million bond measure, with money spent to rebuild the school in Eastside, add eight classrooms to Madison Elementary School and make general improvements to the district’s buildings.

The School Board agreed it didn’t want to go over the $60 million mark. But the board wanted to do more for Madison.

Board Member Wally Hazen noted that between the cost of adding classrooms and making repairs to the existing facility, the district would spend about $9.3 million. For $20 million, it could have a new building without needing to worry about repairs for years.

“$9.3 million would be a patch,” he said. “You are spending an awful lot for a patch.”

Board Member Don Blom concurred, noting the design would allow for future expansion if needed.

“It’s a little bit of a stretch ... But after a lot of thinking about it, I think it makes a lot of sense,” he said. “Building a new state-of-the-art building with options for the future is smart.”

The board also diverged from the committee’s recommendation over the issue of Harding.

Home to the district’s alternative learning programs, Harding was thought to need $7.3 million of repairs. Rather than put so much money into a building built in the 1920s, the committee suggested tearing it down and moving the programs to Bunker Hill Elementary School, which would be vacant once its students moved to Eastside.

At a special meeting last week, the school’s principal, Linda Vickrey, urged the board to keep the alternative learning programs at Harding. She noted that students benefit from being able to attend programs and use services at Marshfield High School that would be harder to access at Bunker Hill.

The School Board agreed with Vickrey and decided to spare Harding, though Board Member Donna Opitz left open the possibility the school might move in the future.

“Ultimately, I’m in favor of closing it, but we don’t have to close it down right now,” she said.

Part of the reason for staying in the location was that tearing down the building would cost about $1.3 million.

In an effort to remain under the $60 million threshold, the School Board also approved cuts to the budgets for making repairs to Sunset Middle School’s roof, and replacing doors and windows throughout the district.

Maintenance Manager Joel Smallwood said there still would be significant improvements to the Sunset roof — about $2.1 million — but they would address specific areas rather than replacing it.

Lastly, the district would save about $4 million by not making repairs to Blossom Gulch. Concerns about the property, which is reportedly sinking, led to the decision.

“We are not going to make renovations to (Blossom Gulch) because of the land it sits on,” Murray said after the meeting.

The lack of renovations could result in the closure of the elementary school though such a decision would come later.

Business Manager Rod Danielson said students would remain at Blossom Gulch, but if fewer children live near the school in the future, the district might choose to relocate students to the two new schools. Blossom Gulch could then conceivably house the district’s alternative learning programs.

Murray said that decision would be made in the future and was not part of the night’s decision.

Board Member Andy Post acknowledged the disparity between the funding for the various schools, but he, too, supported the decision.

“I know Blossom Gulch is a popular school,” he said. “Financially, it just doesn’t make sense” to make repairs.

Hazen said his decision was influenced by a sense of fairness for the western part of the district. With Eastside getting a new school, he said it might be taken as a slight to only make an addition to Madison.

“I didn’t like the idea the west side of the district was taking a back seat to the rest of the community,” he said. “The fairness issue ... made a tremendous amount of sense.”

Having two new buildings might also help the district with its enrollment problems.

At the end of the meeting, Danielson provided the board with enrollment figures, noting that the district saw a decline of 43 students from last year, down to 3,467.

Hazen noted that the new schools might help remedy the problem.

“Maybe with the new schools, we will attract new parents,” he said.

Blom said the best reason to support the bond was because of the role the school plays in the community.

“In our community, the schools are our house,” he said. “I would definitely support fixing up our house.”