07/03/09 Redmond
 
by Ariel Wesler
 
This was the scene a little over a year ago when the $110 million bond passed.  Now, the Oregon Secretary of State is hitting the superintendent, communcations officer, and chief operations officer with a total $250 dollars in fines.
 
All three were fined for advocacy, using personalized language like "our" instead of "the" and "will" instead of "would" on campaign materials for the bond.
 
The Secretary of State's office conducting the investigation also felt using the word "needed" was too subjective,stating
 
"Let readers make their own assessment of what is needed."
 
The district also included Hartman in it's estimated 2100 high school enrollment submitted to the state.  State officials said combining the two school totals was misleading, since the Hartman buidling could have been used as alternative to building the new high school.
 
"Not including this information. . .is a sufficiently critical factor to find advocacy and a violation."
 
The district says the material submitted for brochures was approved by the state, but it was not asked to submit the identical website information for review, where the state is finding fault.
 
"There was absolutely no attempt to mislead or provide anything other than complete and accurate information," the district responded.
The Redmond School District has no plans to fight the fines, saying
 
"The designated fines do not warrant additional expenditure of district funds to argue about a very subjective judgment call."
 
The three school district officials insist they were not cheerleading for the bond and the state is nit-picking, but they say it's not worth paying additional legal fees to pursue the issue.