>La Grande Observer | Union and Wallowa Counties' News Leader

The La Grande School District Facilities Committee should be commended for deciding to weigh in on the Willow School issue. The committee will recommend to the school board that the reopening or replacement of Willow be kept as an option as it plans a bond measure proposal to present to voters in November.

“The committee does not think the public will support a bond unless we do something with Willow,’’ Facilities Committee Chairman Dan Mielke said.

The district maintains it simply cannot afford to operate Willow. It closed the school in 2006 as a cost-cutting move in the wake of more than a decade of declining enrollment. The Willow closure was the district’s third school closure in a little more than a decade.

What the committee recognized — and the school board needs to be   cognizant of — is that Willow provides an option in the event the enrollment picture turns around, which forecasts are showing is likely to happen. Mielke described it as an emotional issue. He is right.

District patrons see a potentially viable building in Willow, one that if retrofitted could mitigate the need for a new school at a new site, or expansion of other schools. Willow was a neighborhood school — just as Greenwood is, Island City is and Riveria was. But unlike Riveria, which has an additional story and needed a lot more overhaul, Willow could fill a need as a school. The committee suggested the district might even want to consider using Willow as the school for kindergarteners.

Whatever Willow’s future use might be, the committee is making a wise recommendation to the school board — one the board should heed.

Convincing voters that La Grande’s schools are desperately in need of upgrading isn’t going to be an easy sell, if the results of the last bond measure election are any indication. Over the years the facilities staff has done a great job patching problems. Maybe too good. The fact that the district’s buildings’ bones are worn out isn’t readily apparent. But they are, and the time has come for patrons to invest in school infrastructure. Upgrading these buildings isn’t getting any less costly.

One would think that need alone should be enough to convince people to support a facilities improvement bond. But that didn’t work with   the $30 million proposal that voters rejected in 2006, and it may not work even with a lesser proposal in 2008.

The district needs to show that it is making a good-faith effort to keep costs as low as possible, and if that means keeping Willow in the picture, in some form, so be it.

The La Grande School District needs every advantage it can muster in order to get a bond passed. Willow can play a role.