A local option levy generating about $3.2 million a year for five years will fund up to 39 additional teaching positions, help reduce class size in core subjects, and improve vocational and technical education in the Corvallis School District.

The district's priorities were presented to the community in four general areas, according to Superintendent Dawn Tarzian. Those areas were secondary-school class size and vocational education, wellness and music, high school athletics and activities, and what the district calls "vital building blocks for academic success." The first of those building blocks is literacy.

The levy also will provide some financial stability over a five-year period, Business Manager Kathy Rodeman said. The district plans to set aside funds in the first years of the levy as a buffer against future budget reductions.

In hindsight, I wouldn't ask for financial support during difficult labor negotiations.
Dawn Tarzian, Corvallis Superintendent

Budget recovery due

Like other districts, Corvallis schools have weathered extensive budget-cutting. The district collected information in previous years regarding community concerns and priorities for what should be added back if funds were available. Information from the district's yearly community budget process also influenced decision-making.

This was the third local option attempt for Corvallis schools. The first attempt in 1999 passed, but 2004's levy was narrowly defeated. That election was held during collective bargaining.

"In hindsight, I wouldn't ask for financial support during difficult labor negotiations," Tarzian said. The school district is one of the major employers in Corvallis. It was hard to ask employees for more money when additional money was not in their contract, she said.

Political analyst Bill Lunch, Oregon State University, studied the failed 2004 levy attempt and consulted with the district on the 2006 campaign. Although general community support for the levy remained consistent, the tremendous support from classified and certified employees in this election is evidence that they made the difference, Tarzian said.

The levy proposal was announced in June and the political action committee began fund-raising activities in August, sending letters to contributors to past district campaigns. "The unions - classified in particular - were fantastic," Rodeman said, contributing $10,000 from OSEA in cash and in-kind donations."

"Our theme was to enhance education," Tarzian said. Communications emphasized the school board's record of financial responsibility and explained how additional funding could help Corvallis students.

Ads explain `enhanced education'

Newspaper ads almost every day for the last two weeks of the campaign were critical in delivering the district's messages.

"One day, the ad would say `Vote yes, and here are the reasons why,'" Tarzian said. "Other ads featured endorsements from prominent people in the community."

A guest editorial in the local paper emphasized the importance of powerful teachers and a group within the campaign committee wrote unsolicited letters to the editor about needs in Corvallis schools.

A local state representative supplied a voter list that helped the campaign committee target mailers to those expected to vote yes or swing yes. Committee members also hit the streets in a "knock and talk" effort focused on voters likely to swing yes.

Tarzian hosted a series of breakfasts in the community to discuss the health and well-being of the district, leaving time to hand out neutral information about the levy. She also attended staff meetings at all the schools. A district Web site included facts about the levy.

Opposition plays its hand

Rodeman said that a small, well-organized and vocal group opposed to the levy commandeered the campaign's statistics and used them on its own Web site and in inserts in the local newspaper. The same group had opposed the '04 campaign.

"We overcame the opposition by sticking to our message and focusing on student achievement," Tarzian said. The district's credibility and reputation for fiscal responsibility reinforced that message. A school closure last year, although painful to part of the community, showed that the board was making hard decisions and watching resources, she said.

The district's Web site included a tax calculator connected to the assessor's data that community members could use to calculate what the levy would cost them. But they downplayed the mechanics of how the tax would be calculated because, she said, "We could explain it for a week and people still wouldn't understand it."

"I think we struck the right balance by explaining what the additional money would be used for," Tarzian said. "We focused on the what, not the how."