Vote Yes TDHS provides additional information on new school bond
Editor’s note - The Vote Yes TDHS team that is supporting the upcoming $140-million school bond to build a new high school in The Dalles has been listening to questions from the public. In response they have put together some fairly specific information about the bond, what it will pay for, including athletic fields, maintenance on the current high school building, and, of course, the cost of the new high school.
Some may still want more specifics. But that is a tough ask as much of the plan, engineering, design and cost analysis of materials is paid for through the bond. This cost is approximately a third of the overall price tag - Millions of dollars. So, those brass tacks would only be figured out and open to the public for input and comment if and when the bond passes.
Breaking Down the $140 Million Bond
Approximate eventual layout of new high school campus if bond passes.
Community Advisory Committee of 60 community members worked through 5 meetings, facilitated by OPSIS the firm that recently completed Hood River’s May Street Elementary and many other projects. The committee has agreed on the scope of the overall project which includes:
New High School 167,000 Sqft High School with Increased capacity to ~950 Students
Classrooms
Science Labs
Gym Space
Performance Space
Career and Technical Education Spaces
Outdoor Spaces
Large Commons Spaces for Eating & Congregating
HVAC providing modern heating and air conditioning
CCTV, Security & Access Control Enabled
ADA Accessible
Parking and Paving
Cost: $128.9 million
Wahtonka Demolition and New Athletics Practice Fields & Facilities
Year-round practice fields on the Wahtonka Site
New athletic facilities
Cost: $13.5 million
- Look out for a project in the pipeline at the Wasco County Commission that’s looking at building a sports complex within walking distance from this campus that would offer a competition space to the entire community. Go Riverhawks!
East 10th St High School Repairs & Upgrades
Electrical Upgrades: $1 million
ADA Accessibility Improvements and reconfiguration of some spaces: $2 million
Roof Repairs: $2.4 million
Total Cost: $5.4 million
Total of new high school, original TDHS repair, and new athletics practice fields: $147.8 million
This would bring the grand total of all projects to $147.8 million. The district is proposing a $140 million bond to cover most of this cost and will receive $4 million in matching funds should the bond pass from the state. The remainder would be addressed through alternative funding sources such as grants, the sale of district properties, income from the Google enterprise agreements, and other dollars from the district's Capital Improvement Fund.
$140 Million Dollar Bond
How does it compare to other bonds?
The Dalles Middle School Bond was passed in the early 2000s at a rate of $1.65/$1000 of assessed property value. When you align that $1.65 with the inflation to now (2023), you get a rate of $2.74.
The difference is, that was a 20-year bond, and this is a 30-year bond.
Here’s a full list of bonds in the district.
Click to expand.
What is the price of New High School per Square Foot?
Note - Pricing per Sqft can be misleading with different builders and architects including different costs into the sqft price.
Typically, in the pricing of public buildings, a building's sqft price doesn't include the soft costs as they can be variable by state, city, and county and don’t provide a very helpful comparison.
When costing the construction of public buildings, it’s standard to break the costing down into “hard costs”(2 thirds) and “soft costs” (1 third).
Hard costs are materials like concrete and roofing.
Soft costs are things like architectural, engineering, and other professional services, taxes, equipment rentals, and fees.
So, the first calculation is $128,900,000/167,000 sqft (sqft of the building) - $771.85 - and when you take 2 thirds of that by multiplying it by 0.66 - we get $509.42 per sqft.
Then with $509.42/sqft, let’s understand what it’s slated to pay for:
Groundwork, parking, and traffic layout
Signage & Sidewalks, and Traffic Safety
An earthquake-resistant and energy-efficient building that’s designed with up-to-date research in supportive environments and learning spaces
School security-enabled doors & entryways, glass, CCTV, and lockdown systems
HVAC systems, plumbing, engineering.
Soft furnishings such as built-in desks, lockers, eating spaces, science labs, library/media centers
Learning tools, such as whiteboards
CTE - Vocational Learning Spaces - such as Autoshop, Culinary Arts, and many more
Specialty finishes in other areas such as athletic & performing arts spaces
Cafeteria & Nutrition Services Facilities
Will the Bond Rate Go down with the new Google Projects paying property taxes and fees?
As taxable properties and assessed values are added to the tax rolls, collectively bond rates go down as more people are paying those rates.
D21’s first bond estimate didn't include the Google project as it wasn’t yet on the tax rolls and “couldn’t be properly assessed to estimate the change in the tax rate.” So, without google 1, It was projected to cost $3.12/$1,000 assessed value.
The second estimate, done by Piper Sandler Public Finance included the taxable impact of the first Google project as it had since been assessed to be added to the tax rolls. The homeowner's potential high school bond rate of $3.12 went to $2.73 - a reduction of 39¢.
Hypothetically:
3. If we assume the second Google property to be exactly the same value as the first when it comes on the tax rolls. We also assume all other financial conditions are the same (they won’t be), the addition of the second Google property would bring the cost of the high school on the taxpayer down another 39¢ to $2.34/$1,000
4. Repeting that in adding the third Google property with the same 2 previous assumptions, and after its tax break period, another 39¢, very hypothetically, would bring the rate down to $1.95/$1,000.
In addition to and irrespective of the tax reduction, the school district would also be benefiting from the 2 negotiated fees through Wasco County and the City of The Dalles. The first of these two new data center projects started in the Port of The Dalles this Spring.
Other similar bonds and their expiration dates.
Mid-Columbia Fire & Rescue’s last year to levy the current bond is tax year 2033-34
Park & Rec.’s last year - 2029-30
Col. Gorge Community College’s last year - 2025-26
From North Wasco County School District:
CAC stands for Community Action Committee - the 60 people that worked for more than a year on the district’s physical school needs. Here you can see the group, after getting an initial cost analysis asked for increased capacity so the new school so it could handle up to 950 students - 150 more than in the original analysis bringing the school building base cost to $128,.9 million. It was necessary as the current high school student population in TD stands at 950. Click to enlarge.
Note- the estimated base price of the New High School is $120 million, with an added capacity all round, costing $8.9 million. The top identified priorities in addition to that base are as follows:
Add the base cost of the school at $128.9 million and it comes out to the $147.8 million figure. Click to enlarge
***Yellow border indicates priority/project at the new school site. The red border indicates priority/project at the existing TDHS campus.
This would bring the grand total of all projects to $147.8 million. The district is proposing a $140 million dollar bond to cover the majority of this cost and will receive $4 million in matching funds should the bond pass (see above). The remainder could potentially be addressed by alternative funding sources such as grants, the sale of district properties, income from the Google agreements, and other dollars from the district's Capital Improvement Fund.
