If you got a phone call from school bond supporters this past week, you may also have gotten a surprise. Although the Snoqualmie Valley School District isn’t permitted to advocate for a specific election issue, many people got calls identified as from the district.

The calls were actually from Snoqualmie Valley Citizens for Schools, a nonprofit volunteer group organized specifically to campaign for school issues, such as the $244 million bond on the February 10 ballot. The group had rented space in a school building to conduct a phone campaign, and had used school computer labs to not only make the VOIP phone calls, but also to track who had been called, and their responses.

“It made organizing who we were calling easier,” explained Kirk Harris, chairperson of Citizens for Schools. He said the group determined who to call by making a public records request for voter turnout information from King County Elections. Volunteers cross-referenced that information with a list of parents obtained by a public records request from the school district.

“Our goal was to at least call basically all parents in the district,” said Harris.

The school district is not involved in the phone bank, other than renting the space to Citizens for Schools.

“That group is able to advocate and encourage a certain type of vote, but if it comes from the school district we can only provide factual information,” said district spokeswoman Carolyn Malcolm. She added that the district receives nearly 3,000 requests to rent space each year, and while school-related uses such as sports and concerts don’t pay a rental fee, Citizens for Schools will pay for its use of facilities.

As of Thursday, Feb. 5, Harris estimated that the volunteers at the phone bank had made about 6,000 calls, “but about half of those are answering machines.”

All callers are given a script, both for leaving messages and for speaking to respondents. They ask the residents for support on the bond, and if they have decided how they are voting. Those who have questions about the bond are referred to the Citizens for Schools website, yesforsvsdschools.com.

People who say they will vote against the bond, and anyone who asks not to be called again are removed from the list, Harris said.

“Yes” voters may get another call, though, if they haven’t mailed their ballots yet. Because the election is entirely by mail and all voters must sign the outside envelopes of their ballots, King County Elections can track and report on which people have already voted.

“We don’t find out how they voted, just if they’ve sent their ballots,” Harris said.

He said the phone bank, which began on Friday, Jan. 23, will continue until Monday, Feb. 9. Calls are generally made in the evenings, between 6 and 8:30 p.m.