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The math problem facing the Gervais School Board was more challenging than those posed to the district’s students. Unless the board found a way to decrease expenses and increase revenues, teachers were going to lose their jobs and classrooms were going to overflow.

So, now three of the district’s schools are up for sale.

Brooks School, just north of Salem off of the Interstate 5 interchange at Brooks, is the priciest of the properties. It is zoned residential and comes with 10 acres of land for $2.4 million.

The other two buildings are zoned for exclusive farm use. One, Eldriedge Elementary School on River Road, comes with eight acres of land. District officials are asking for $844,000 for that property.

The other is North Howell Elementary School on Rambler Road near Silverton. Although the Gervais School District owns the building, it has not been used as a Gervais school since 2002. District officials have leased the building to St. John Bosco High School, a private Catholic high school, for the past four years. The district is asking for $460,000 for the building.

Superintendent Rick Hensel said school board members began discussing the possibility of selling the buildings in April and came to a final decision in June. It was a mild stroke of genius, Hensel said.

鈥淲e had been looking at ways to cut costs so we didn’t have to lay off as many teachers,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e decided to start thinking outside the box.鈥�

Selling off three rural elementary schools, and bringing students into town, will save money on many levels, Hensel said. It will reduce costs related to administration, groundskeeping and meal services.

Transportation costs also will drop. Gervais formerly was primarily a rural school district, with students scattered among farms in north Marion County. However, a housing boom in the past 10 years has more than quadrupled the city’s population from 500 people to 2,300.

Hensel said it represents a major demographic shift. Most of the district’s 1,100 students now live in town. It now makes sense to bring students to centralized schools, and transportation expenses have shifted accordingly.

鈥淚t used to be that 60 percent to 70 percent of kids were bused into the district from rural homes,鈥� Gervais School Board Chairman Brent LaFollette said. 鈥淣ow it’s exactly the reverse.鈥�

As early as next year, students from Brooks and Eldriedge schools will meet in modular classrooms on high school and middle school campuses. Hensel called these modular units 鈥渞evolutionary鈥� versions.

Portland State University architecture professors Sergio Palleroni and Margarette Leite have designed the units that use green building standards such as improved natural light, air circulation and energy efficiency. They were in Philadelphia last week to present their designs at a national conference on modular construction. Gervais will be the first district in the country to use the units.

鈥淕ervais is the first, though we have potential orders now from several school districts nationally 鈥� even possibly Portland’s David Douglas,鈥� Palleroni said.

Because of the new modular units, the decision to sell school buildings is more than an attempt to raise money, LaFollette said. He added that these units shouldn’t come with a stigma about attending school in a modular unit rather than a traditional school building.

鈥淭hey’re built in a controlled environment, which isn’t a bad idea in Oregon with all the rain and other factors affecting construction,鈥� he said.

District officials are not counting on building sales to bring in money immediately, so they’re also asking voters to approve a $4 million bond in November. The bond would cost property taxpayers 50 cents per $1,000 of assessed value to cover district costs. Hensel said the bond would let the district add eight modular classrooms at the middle school and 12 at the high school.

Bond proposals usually receive mixed reactions from taxpayers. However, LaFollette said district residents have seen schools officials act in good faith by putting the schools up for sale. Support for the bond seems to be running high.

鈥淭o really have such overwhelming support from the community really boosts my optimism,鈥� he said.

Hensel is excited about the developments in his district, but not sure he entirely shares those sentiments. School financing is too shaky throughout the country, he said.

鈥淚 try not to think too far ahead,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t affects my optimism.鈥�