Thousands of red-white-and-blue yard signs have been ordered. Office space for a headquarters has been leased. A slogan has been chosen. And endorsements are coming in. These steps mark the beginning of a campaign encouraging voters to support a $480 million bond issue Nov. 5 for an unprecedented school building project.

        The bond issue would help pay for the largest public works project in city history - a $1 billion initiative to build 35 new public schools and renovate 31 others in Cincinnati over the next decade.

        The stakes are high, especially as voters wrestle with a sluggish economy and nervousness over corporate fiscal scandals.

        But that won't deter campaign organizers.

        “We're in it to win it,” said Brewster Rhoads, a campaign organizer. “There's an urgency in dealing with the problem.”

        Opponents have not revealed their strategy in the campaign.

        Passing the bond issue now means the district would have all the financing in hand to complete the decade-long, four-phase project to fix crumbling and aging schools. If voters reject the issue, the district has funds to complete only the project's first phase, which includes 15 new schools and two renovated schools.

        What would happen with the rest of the schools, which average about 58 years old, would be up in the air.

        The 4.89-mill bond issue would cost owner of a $100,000 market value home an additional $143 annually.

        The non-profit group Cincinnatians Active to Support Education (CASE), which is in charge of raising money for the campaign, predicts this publicity blitz will cost more than the last campaign, which was successful in persuading voters to support a 6-mill, $35.8 million levy.

        CASE spent around $500,000 for the November 2000 campaign, including costs for television ads, yard signs, mailers, office space and consultants, Mr. Rhoads said.

        The group recorded a balance of $10,546 at the end of 2001, according to the annual report filed with the Hamilton County Board of Elections. Thousands of additional dollars in donations have been raised for this campaign, but that's just the beginning, Mr. Rhoads said.

        Soliciting donations from businesses and individuals is a small part of the campaign strategy. Campaign volunteers plan a grass-roots effort to publicize their message.

        That message will be: “For Our Schools ... For Cincinnati.”

        Volunteers plan to take that message to churches, schools, community councils and any organization that welcomes them to a meeting, said school board member Harriet Russell.

        CASE and district officials pitched the project to the Woman's City Club of Greater Cincinnati last week, resulting in an endorsement by that group's board.

        “We think one of the reasons people move (from Cincinnati) is the schools,” said Ruth Cronenberg, the club's president. “This could help turn the tide.”

        The Metropolitan Area Religious Coalition of Cincinnati also endorsed the bond issue.

        Campaigners are making an effort to get people registered to vote, including those who recently turned 18.

        A big part of the campaign effort will be persuading voters to support the bond issue, even if they don't have children in the city's public schools. People like James Mounce of Kennedy Heights, a single resident with no kids in the district who said he already pays too much in taxes.

        “It has no effect for me,” he said. Mr. Mounce said he plans to vote against the bond issue.

        Campaign organizers and district officials say they'll tell such residents how the new schools will be available for community use, not just school children. For example, the design for a new East End school includes space for a YMCA and community policing center.

        “These are going to be community centers,” said Mark Turner, president of CASE. “There's going to be input from the community. These aren't schools that are going to be used six hours (a day) for only 180 days out of the year. They're going to be used year-round, more than likely seven days a week and in the evenings.

        District officials point out they have some of the financing in place, but cannot continue beyond the project's first phase without voter support of the bond issue.

        The state will pay about $210 million toward the $1 billion construction project, as long as the district can raise the rest.

        District officials have lined up another $300 million. That comes in part from payments from the city and Hamilton County in lieu of property taxes from Paul Brown Stadium and Great American Ball Park.

        Campaign organizers also plan to emphasize that interest rates on long-term bonds are the lowest they have been in two decades 1/2ndash 3/4 less than 5 percent.

        Rates were at 6 percent in 1993, the last time the district asked for a bond issue for school construction. Treasurer Michael Geoghegan has said for every 1 percentage point increase in interest rates, the district would have to pay an additional $70 million over the life of this bond issue, which could span 28 years.

        Board members are assuring residents that the August departure of Superintendent Steven Adamowski, who came to the district in 1998, will not put a kink in the continuation of the project. The district is conducting a search for a new chief and has named Deputy Superintendent Rosa Blackwell as interim superintendent.

        Ms. Russell recently told members of the Woman's City Club that the people who worked on the development of the facilities plan - including construction team members, architects, representatives from the state of Ohio and all district facilities employees except one (chief operating officer Kent Cashell) - are still working on the project.

        “Superintendent Adamowski did not attend those planning meetings,” Ms. Russell said. “The people who have produced the plan are still with Cincinnati Public Schools.”

        But the simplest message by campaign organizers will stress the need for the bond issue.

        “People feel very strongly about education and schools,” Mr. Turner said. “I think there's a feeling in the community that what this is about is the children, and that the children in Cincinnati deserve quality schools.”

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