Voters in seven Oregon school districts approved multimillion-dollar bonds on Tuesday night, agreeing to pay for new and modernized school buildings along with safety and security upgrades. One measure, a $48 million bond for Harney County School District No. 3, was rejected.
Many of the buildings at the center of these requests are far past the typical lifespan of a school. Some Oregon campuses still in use are 72, 79, 96 and even 98 years old, well beyond the national average school building age of 49, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers.
In the Willamette Valley, bond measures passed in North Clackamas, Gladstone, Reynolds, Silver Falls and Hillsboro. In Southern Oregon, bonds were passing in Grants Pass and Glide. The money will fund projects such as new roofs, emergency alert systems and new classrooms.
In the Gladstone School District, which serves about 1,600 students in Clackamas County, voters appeared to approve a $55.3 million bond, and the district will receive an additional $10.2 million in state matching funds. "We can do a lot with that, and we know what we need to do," said interim superintendent Karen Gray. "Nothing that we're doing is very sexy. It is all very infrastructure upgrading and repair. And that's gonna last us for years and years."
Every district whose bond passed in this election will receive state matching funds in varying amounts. Harney County had been approved for a $10.2 million matching grant, but it will not collect that money because its bond failed. Voter-approved bonds and taxes are the primary way school facilities get updated, both in Oregon and nationally, and the American Society of Civil Engineers gave the country a "D+" on schools in its Infrastructure Report Card.
Some districts asked voters for more than repairs. In the Reynolds School District, a $162.5 million bond will replace Glenfair Elementary, which is 72 years old, and build a new turf field and bleachers at Reynolds High School, a project that could let the school move its home football games from Mt. Hood Community College to its own campus. In Hillsboro, voters appeared to back safety upgrades and a new classroom for Liberty High School's fire science program, which introduces students to emergency services, forestry and firefighting. More than half of the district's $430 million bond is designated for roofing, seismic improvements, plumbing and other building work.
"Putting this bond together was no small task, and in fact was the culmination of almost two years of planning, assessing schools' needs, drafting a package of projects along with help from a variety of constituents and consultants, gathering input from the community, and raising awareness," Hillsboro Superintendent Travis Reiman said in a press release.
The Glide School District in Douglas County, which serves about 700 students, will use its voter-approved $16.5 million bond to construct new buildings on its elementary, middle and high school campuses. Two new buildings at the district's athletic complex will host community events and provide indoor space for athletics. In Silver Falls, voters approved consolidating three aging elementary schools into one K-8 school and replacing Silverton Middle School.
Gladstone's win marked a turnaround for the district. It had been nearly 20 years since voters there last approved a school bond, and in 2025 they rejected a $70 million measure. Gray credited a smaller financial ask and a political action committee with building community support this time. "Our motto is 'growing good people', that's what they believe in," Gray said. "They showed it last night. They showed that if you tell us exactly clearly what you're gonna do and it is affordable, we're going to support you all the way." A committee will oversee the bond work.
The state's only school levy on the ballot also passed. Corvallis voters renewed a levy for staff that the district has been renewing for 20 years.
