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For school districts, bond measures are a big deal. Without voters’ approval, officials can’t budget for needed repairs or new facilities. With so much riding on these efforts, some districts are enlisting architecture firms to provide more than designs.

鈥淪chool design is a very collaborative, iterative process where we do a lot of educational facility planning work ahead of actually designing,鈥� said Steve Olson, a principal at DOWA-IBI Group. 鈥淲e work with staff, teachers and parents to define what the project is going to be.鈥�

As part of preplanning, architects may perform surveys of facilities, cost analyses, community outreach and more. That kind of work helped the Tigard-Tualatin and Gresham-Barlow school districts prepare for bond measures that will be put before voters next month.

Tigard-Tualatin School District is asking for $291.3 million for a lot of work, including reconstruction of James Templeton Elementary School, Twality Middle School and Tigard High School, expansion of Tualatin High School and construction of a new elementary school. Olson and others at DOWA-IBI Group have been working with district officials for years.

Susan Stark Haydon, spokeswoman for the Tualatin-Tigard School District, said that Olson’s team began meeting with long-range planning task forces in 2014. Last year, discussions focused on site plans and project pricing.

鈥淭he district led those meetings but drew on the expertise of DOWA people to provide site plans based on what the committees wanted,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 feel pretty confident they’ve done a good job and the pricing is pretty accurate.鈥�

Helping school district officials prepare for elections means gathering a lot of details, including costs, Olson said. These can make or break a ballot measure, he added.

鈥淚f they’re going to ask voters for money, we have to have as many details as we can ahead of time,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e need to accurately estimate the costs because when a school district passes a bond they only have so many dollars, so it has to be delivered on budget.鈥�

DOWA-IBI Group’s work has been vital in preparation for the bond measure, Haydon said.

鈥淭hey really helped narrow down what’s possible, plus they also could show us what’s new in school construction and give us ideas about how the latest school buildings are being built,鈥� she said.

Meanwhile, Gresham-Barlow School District has been working with DLR Group in advance of putting a $291.1 million bond measure before voters. Upgrades are planned for 17 schools, including major renovations of Sam Barlow High School and Gresham High School as well as replacements of North Gresham Elementary School and East Gresham Elementary School.

Mike Schofield, chief financial officer for Gresham-Barlow School District, said DLR Group met with the bond measure planning committee to identify needs, meet with the community and ascertain costs for needed work.

鈥淭his was really important in terms of walking the community through a process,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hey helped us ask the right questions.鈥�

Karen Montovino, a senior associate at DLR Group, said she collaborates with school districts during the public process. Her team performs assessments and engages with citizens, parents, district administrators and community leaders to determine what needs to be done.

鈥淲e look at the physical conditions of the buildings 鈥� what’s worn and what’s broken 鈥� and we look at their educational program because the main goal is to improve student learning,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hen we look at what spaces they need because there might be some missing pieces, like a small conference room or a specialty lab.鈥�

Before recommending a plan for construction, Montovino said she also looks at the district’s attrition rates 鈥� enrollment projections and future student population 鈥� as well as its primary education goals.

Once a preliminary plan is laid out for needed work, pricing become extremely important, Montovino said.

鈥淎t least 25 years ago we started working with school districts and got into the facility planning process, realizing the best plan we can come up with does no good if they can’t pass the bond,鈥� she said.

Reynolds School District last year won voters’ approval for a $125 million bond package. The involvement of Oh Planning + Design was critical, district spokeswoman Andrea Watson said.

Deb France, owner of Oh Planning + Design and her team spent two years leading the master planning process, according to Watson. The firm conducted thorough research, collaborated with district staffers and volunteers, and both obtained feedback and reported back to the community.

鈥淭hey did evaluations of the buildings, best estimates of costs over time and a lot of public engagement and working with the facility master planning committee,鈥� Watson said. 鈥淭hey were the ones on the ground and did a lot of report writing, organized people who did the facility condition index and developed a community survey.鈥�

With thoroughly researched and quantifiable data from Oh Planning + Design in hand, criticism of the bond measure became easier to defend, Watson said.

鈥淥ne of the reasons it’s hard to build trust is because so many of these (bond measures) are built on projections, and people end up thinking you’re not telling truth,鈥� she said.

As for Portland Public Schools, it’s big enough to be able to rely on its own experts. Although architects contributed to planning for the $482 million bond measure approved by voters in 2012, district officials opted to handle next year’s $750 million request in-house.

鈥淭his time we did the master planning ahead of time and did not use architects for the May 2017 bond issue,鈥� PPS spokesman David Mayne said.