An education advocacy group said it will sue if Oregon doesn't sell the Elliott State Forest for $221 million or find another way to deposit the same amount into a state account that benefits schoolchildren.

The Oregon School Boards Association sent a letter Friday through its attorney to the three members of the State Land Board – Gov. Kate Brown, Treasurer Tobias Read and Secretary of State Dennis Richardson – urging them to fulfill their duty to maximize the financial return to the Common School Fund.

The school boards group says Oregon is constitutionally required to make as much money for K-12 education as possible from the forest, which straddles Douglas and Coos counties in Southwest Oregon. They say that maximum value, $221 million, was established by an independent property appraisal.

"We appreciate that some individuals may place a higher regard on noneconomic values of the Forest, such as scenery or recreation, than on the value of the Forest as an economic asset to benefit the State's public schools," attorneys John DiLorenzo and Gregory Chaimov of Davis Wright Tremaine said in the letter, alluding to environmental advocacy groups who are pushing to keep the land public. "The Board, however, may not consider the desires of anyone other than the State's schools."

The letter arrived a little more than a week before the obscure three-person body is expected to once again discuss the fate of the forest. The saga pits opponents who decry the proposed sale of public lands against K-12 advocates who say the state's hands are already tied.

For more than two years, the land board has considered selling the 82,500-acre state forest to raise revenue for the school fund. The forest, once a big moneymaker for the state, has not been as profitable in recent years as logging plummeted in the face of legal challenges from environmental groups. The land board appeared to be on a path toward selling the forest until Read

switched his stance on the proposed sale

of the property to a timber company and local tribe, opting to join Brown in planning to keep the forest in public hands.

Environmental groups lobbied Read heavily in the weeks before his March 28 announcement that he would support a proposal to maintain public ownership.

The school board association's attorneys said the state's mission is "crystal clear."

"We urge you to adhere to those fiduciary obligations in the face of whatever political pressure may be brought to bear by those who lack appreciation for those duties," they wrote.

Bryan Hockaday, Brown's spokesman, said in an email that the governor has "made clear the critical importance of fulfilling the State's fiduciary obligations to the Common School Fund" even as she has worked on a new plan to keep the forest in public hands.

Earlier this year, Brown had expressed support for the idea of issuing state bonds to maintain public ownership of the forest. Senate President Peter Courtney, D-Salem, is also open to issuing state debt to keep the forest.

Hockaday said the governor will release a new plan later this week that "honors the Common School Fund, protects the Elliott's diverse habitats, and ensures the sustainable harvest of timber."

The Common School Fund has roughly $1.4 billion in assets, according to the state. More than 1 million acres of state lands, including the Elliott, produce revenue for the education endowment. The account distributed more than $136.6 million to K-12 programs across the state in the 2015-17 biennium. Oregon's overall K-12 budget during that same period was more than $7.3 billion.

The land board is scheduled to meet May 9.

-- Andrew Theen

atheen@oregonian.com

503-294-4026

@andrewtheen