The 101-year-old school building in Ukiah is home to 32 students in grades K-12. The building is showing its age, but voters in the May 2024 primary did not pass a bond that would have paid for improvements to the school.

UKIAH — Ukiah School District voters striking down the modest bond proposal in the Oregon primary election has caused some soul-searching in the small community.

“There were a lot of people who were kind of surprised,” Superintendent Laura Orr said. “I don’t know if we were too optimistic, but we’re still trying to suss out exactly what we missed in our group and our public.”

Ukiah has fewer than 200 registered voters. An even 100 participated in the school bond measure with 39 yes votes and 61 voting no.

“I believe that sets a community record for voter participation,” Orr said. “Voter turnout in Ukiah usually isn’t great.”

The measure had intended to fix up the town’s century-old single school building, which houses 32 students in all grades K-12.

The bond measure would have constructed a separate library building. The town has no public library, so residents thread through the school to check out books. The bond would have installed new siding on the schoolhouse, increased classroom space, improved building access to improve functionality, public access and student academic options.

The price tag was $1.5 million from the community, which the state would have matched with a grant.

“I am very grateful we had people paying attention and having conversations,” Orr said. “I wish we could have had some more productive conversations, because since it failed, I’ve had quite a few people who feel more comfortable asking questions as to the process or what we were actually asking for or what the realities of it would be.”

She also said she talked with several residents who felt strongly that regardless of the need they were taxed enough.

“I’m a property owner in town,” Orr said. “I was going to take a pretty significant tax increase myself, and nobody likes paying taxes. If you’re a person who feels as if you’re being hit through your business and your personal expenses, and fuel, and, and, and … this was just one more ask. It was a big ask.”

But the tiny community does not have its own police or fire departments, she said, so it is not paying for those resources.

“So the impact on the community would not really be unreasonable compared to other communities in the region,” she said. “It’s not unreasonable or out of the norm for other small school districts to ask for bonds, and Ukiah is the smallest school district in Oregon that has ever asked for a bond. We didn’t adequately explain those processes because there was some confusion on just how much it would cost.”

Orr said the outcome is disappointing, and the bond committee, school board and active community members who supported the bond needed to “personally reflect and process” what happened. And the next step is to analyze just that.

“The work still needs to be done,” she said. “Our bond committee and school board and our active community members are going to regroup here in the next couple of weeks and do a postmortem and look at what worked, what didn’t and where we obviously didn’t communicate well to figure out what we missed.”

Orr said the school district has benefited from adding 10 students who were unexpected and that has made it possible to get a little better funding from the state.

“I just can’t provide the needed funding for 100-year old concrete to be upgraded and replaced with the addition of a few more kiddos to the district,” she said.