"Let's Build" was the theme of a successful $13 million bond campaign that will mean a new middle school for Creswell along with some new storage and bus facilities.

The poor condition of the existing middle school was noted in facilities studies in 1998 and 2002, convincing board members to set a goal in spring 2005 to promote a middle school capital-improvement plan.

"A middle school bond committee was established, a separate steering committee was put into place and a community booster committee began to generate a `Let's Build' campaign," said Superintendent Rick Stuber about what followed the goal-setting session.

An architect, the middle school principal, a board member and the district's business manager together developed plans for the school and computed costs based on a rough per-square-footage model.

The district developed a fact sheet about proposed projects in the fall and considered some campaign strategies.

"But by spring 2006, the `Let's Build' group was such a dynamic force that the board was able to back away from a campaign of their own," Stuber said. "Our `Let's Build' co-chairs, the Two Daves (Dave Eusted and Dave Case) were unbelievably committed and demonstrated great leadership."

"'Let's Build' established a war chest from private donations, made yard signs, conducted open houses, went door to door and wrote letters to the editor of the newspaper," he said. "They leaned on key public figures for support, checked voter registrations to see who had not turned in a ballot and made phone calls to remind them to vote. They also set up displays at prominent locations, preached on street corners and had their own uniforms - bright yellow `Let's Build' T-shirts."

"`Let's Build' was successful for its inspiration but also played off the exasperation that this project really needed to get done," Stuber said.

It worked: bond passes, first try

"`Let's Build' was challenged and boosted every step of the way by two key district staff members, middle school principal Shirley Burrus and business manager Jennifer Heiss," Stuber said. The two provided technical support whenever needed.

OSBA's Bonds and Ballots and workshops provided the district with some valuable strategies, but the biggest lesson Stuber learned in the bond campaign was this one: "It's got to be grassroots, it's got to be about kids and the need has to be obvious."

Rumors and putting a face on complaints were obstacles the district overcame, Stuber said.

"We'd hear rumors but wouldn't know where the misinformation came from and we heard complaints about how previous bond-measure monies weren't spent the way some people thought they should have been," he said. "Frustrations were kept in check because we knew we were doing the right thing. We stayed with our message that we needed a new facility."

Securing the win wasn't as easy as some `Let's Build' members anticipated.

Election results reversed

"On election night, we were behind nearly 200 votes and the `Let's Build' team (some of whom had predicted 70 percent yes votes) was devastated," Stuber said. "The newspaper wrote us off."

A week after Stuber accepted condolences at an OSBA conference, the vote count jumped to 12 in favor.

"It took nearly 20 days after the election for the results to be certified and to know that we had won," said Stuber. The final tally showed a win by 16 votes.

"We had a good strategy, we kept focused on the goal, we trusted the `Let's Build' team, and we never gave up."