Since the passage of our facilities bond in May, the district has been busy in preparation for work that will begin in the Spring of 2025. Below is a short list of activities that have occurred to date:
July: Prepared for sale of our bonds and completed the Moody’s rating process. The district received a stellar results and received a credit rating upgrade to Aa3. The district had previously been rated A1 by Moody’s.
August 8th: Sold our $16.115 million in voter approved bonds. The sale went well, with overall demand for bonds outstripping supply.
August 22nd: Closed on our bonds, and FRSD received the funds. Due to a combination of factors, including the fact that the bonds had nearly 4 orders for every maturity and the favorable Moddy’s rating, we were able to reduce the interest rates over the initial offering, and investors were willing to pay a premium price in order to receive the bonds. This resulted in the district receiving nearly $2 million in additional proceeds that can be used on projects in accordance with the voter-approved ballot title.
Late August: Professional Services were secured to be used throughout the bond. These were in the areas of Geotechnical Engineering (GRI), Site Surveying (AKS Engineering), Hazardous materials testing (PBS Environmental), Special Inspection & Testing (Earth Engineers) Systems Commissioning (Systems West and Sazan Group) and Building Envelope Design and Testing (PRC).
Early September: Design firms were selected for the 4 project areas: EHS Athletics Campus (Robertson Sherwood Architects), District-wide classroom and restroom upgrades (Rowell Brokaw Architects), Mechanical Systems Upgrades (Interface Engineering) and Site improvements for parking and drainage (KPFF Engineering).
September 24th: The first EHS Athletic Facility Planning Committee met. This group of 20+ community members, staff, and partners met with Robertson Sherwood Architects to take input prior to them beginning to design the facility.
September 26th: The first Bond Oversight Committee (BOC) was held. This group is a group of 5 community members charged with ensuring the district is meeting bond promises.
October 17th: The first VES planning Committee made up of parents and staff met with Rowell Browkaw Architects to take input prior to the design work for VES gym and restroom upgrades.
October 22nd: The first EHS planning committee made up of FRSD staff and community members met with Rowell Browkaw Architects to take input prior to the design work for the EHS Science room upgrades.
Timeline of projects. While their will be a variety of work over the coming years, the three primary bond promise projects we hope to have completed by the Fall of 2025 are the EHS Athletic Facility (breaking ground March 30th), the VES gym/restroom, and the EHS Science classrooms (both to begin as soon as school is out in June of 2025). The goal will be to have them complete and ready for the start of school in the Fall of 2025.
Future updates: The district will continue to provide updates as appropriate (every 1-2 months). In addition the district is working on a 2024 bond information page on our website that will contain a wide range of information in the months to come. The direct link to that page is here: https://www.fernridge.k12.or.us/archived-bond-info/