Cove School District's 30-year-old high school will get two new classrooms along with new siding, energy-efficient windows and ADA upgrades with funds from a $475,000 bond.

"We've needed these things for quite a while," Superintendent Jeff Clark said. The community agreed, with 57 percent of voters supporting the bond.

Clark has talked about ongoing needs at the high school with school board members, maintenance staff and community members for the past three years. Discussion about a bond began last spring, leading to the formation of a bond committee comprising a board member and several community representatives.

The committee toured the high school facility, talked with an architect (Trying to balance feasibility with pipe dreams, Clark said) and asked a contractor to put together a ballpark figure for the proposed projects.

"Before the board made any decisions, it invited eight or nine key community members (including some former board members) to a work session," Clark said. "Our board members, who have a pretty good pulse on our community, were able to answer their questions and concerns."

The bond committee put up signs and sent a brochure explaining the bond to the community in the fall.

Good stewards deserve support

"The underlying theme of the campaign was that we've been good stewards of what you've given us - we've taken good care of our facilities - and we will continue that stewardship," Clark said.

In an interesting twist, he said, some negative publicity about the bond may have actually aided the campaign.

"Someone against the bond wrote letters to the editor of the newspaper. Those letters allowed us to respond and better explain the issues, and we feel it probably helped us."

Campaign efforts in this small town were low-key and personal. Committee members made plywood signs from materials they had on hand and the brochure printing was donated.

"Our school district has a good relationship with the community," Clark said. "The schools are a real focal point here."

Clark learned one significant lesson from this campaign experience: "At some point, you have to decide whether you are going ahead with your plan or not. I think we spent more time than we should have talking about it. There comes a point when you need to cut to the chase!"

The district is developing a time line of bond projects and plans to have everything completed when school starts next fall.