Bond fails: college moves forward

Though voters decided not to pass a bond measure this last election, Mt. Hood’s president remains confident there are other options to move the college forward and that efforts for another bond attempt are still a possibility, she said.

President Debbie Derr said that ongoing communication with Mt. Hood’s service district – the residents whose property taxes help support the college – is important, as she discussed the school’s response and plans following a disappointing outcome.

“We’re going to continue to connect with this community… I mean, we met with over 100 community groups, and we have to continue to be connected with that community,” she said.

That might continue through various means such as newsletters, social media, or even community forums, she said.

Voters turned down the MHCC bond measure, by a 55 percent to 45 percent margin. The election results will not be certified until June 6, but once they are, they will be evaluated and analyzed.

“We’ll compare our results to other results within the Portland metropolitan area,” said Derr. “So that ‘s kind of the first piece, is to go back and review what happened.”

Mt. Hood lost out on $125 million in funding for new buildings and improvements, but, besides the bond efforts (which cost a bit more than $200,000), MHCC has raised money through other channels. “Since July, the college has brought in $1.9 million in grant funds for programming,” said Derr.

The college is waiting on outcomes for over $4 million worth of grant funding requests. The MHCC Foundation auction last month raised over $285,000, about $60,000 more than last year’s take.

The state of Oregon would have matched $8 million to help build a new applied technology building on the main campus, which would house a mechatronics program (a field that combines mechanical, electrical, computer and other types of engineering). Even without a new building, the program will still come to Mt. Hood through Oregon talent grants, Derr said, although a location for it is yet to be set.

“Mechatronics is going to happen, and we have no ‘new general fund money’ to do that, but we have grant money to do that,” the president said. “We know from our partnerships with business and industry that there are jobs out there.”

In her initial reaction, the bond failure was a personal blow for Derr.

“That night I was just so disappointed, and so sad. We had put so much work into it for a long time. Almost two years, and so it was pretty disappointing,” said Derr. “Then I got kind of angry. It was almost like the steps of grieving, where you’re really sad and then you’re really mad, and then you kind of reconcile.”

Derr said that even though she is still disappointed, she is working on moving forward. “That’s what I do… and bringing people together and doing a good job of learning from the failure and then having a clear idea of what we want to do next,” she said.

“We can’t just throw up our hands and give it up, we just have to keep moving forward and figure out we’re going to do it, and we will.”