No lawn signs will cry out for support. No TV ads will make residents think the Bend-La Pine School District needs money.

But despite the lack of traditional symbols, a campaign to support a new property tax levy for Bend-La Pine schools is very much under way.

The levy on the Nov. 2 ballot will ask property owners within the Bend-La Pine School District to pay up to 85 cents per $1,000 of assessed value each year for five years. In total, the levy could bring the district an estimated $34 million over five years to add back school days, reduce class sizes, add teachers, buy educational materials, fund student activities and decrease pay-to-play fees.

The $6.3 million that the levy may bring in the first year would be used for the 2005-06 school year – not the current year – because of the timing of the election.

The grass-roots campaign will rely on phone calls and door-to-door canvassing, which should get under way today, according to Caryn Hill, a parent of a High Lakes Elementary student and the levy campaign manager.

”The statistics show on money measures, lawn signs bring out no voters,” she said.

TV ads are expensive and would be competing against the noise of the myriad other TV ads from the presidential campaign.

So, instead, volunteers going door-to-door will hand out a flier explaining how levy money would be used.

”I think the last time we attempted the levy in May that was not clear,” Hill said.

Last spring, voters rejected a property-tax measure that would have asked them to pay up to 60 cents per $1,000 of assessed value every year for three years.

About 43 percent of voters approved the tax measure earlier this year.

As a result of the levy failure, the district was unable to add new teaching positions, cut the school calendar by four days for students and raised pay-to-play athletic fees. If the levy passes this fall, the district wants to bring student-to-teacher ratios back to the 2001-02 level, add school days and provide money for library materials, among other steps.

Buckingham Elementary Principal Teresa Hjeresen was told through the district that levy dollars could help her add teachers, decrease class sizes and

increase the amount of money the school has for supplies and other items.

Five years ago, the principal’s budget, which included money for supplies, textbooks, furniture and toilet paper, was about $80,000. Now it’s $49,000, she said, noting that the school’s enrollment has decreased.

”If you look across our town, we have all these beautiful new schools that some of our kids get to go to school in,” Hjeresen said. ”It’s not the case for everybody. At some point, there needs to be an equitable upkeep just like you’re

running a business.”

For more information on the levy, go to: http://yesforlocalschools.com/

Julia Lyon can be reached at 541-617-7831 or at jlyon@bendbulletin.com.