BEND, OR -- Bend-La Pine Schools plans to ask voters to approve a new bond measure in November. District fficials say there are 437 projects at district facilities that need attention soon. Superintendent Steven Cook told the school board at Tuesday night's meeting, 87 of those are considered  priority, "And there, right now, is a pretty good price tag that goes with these. And, as you know, there’s not a funding source to address all of these projects."

He told the board, "We anticipate this total project ask to be approximately $250 million, with the lion’s share of that going to focus on the renovation - or ‘reconstruction,’ is probably a better way to say that - reconstruction of Bend High." Cook added, "We believe, through the authorization of these funds, that we could do this with essentially no impact to the taxes because of the - a couple of reasons. Number one: the fact that we would have some bond payments coming off. And secondly, our ability to refinance and grab a hold of opportunities we’d be afforded to hit the timing on that correctly."

The board unanimously approved the request after confirming the school bond isn’t - so far - competing with any other taxing districts for voter attention in November.