VERNONIA, Ore. -- After December flooding damaged all three of Vernonia's schools and the administration office, the small Coast Range town is looking for money to rebuild and avoid the same kind of disaster again.

On his kitchen table, school Superintendent Ken Cox set up three computers he managed to save from the rising water to keep the school district office working until a temporary trailer could be set up in a parking lot near Vernonia High School.

"I'm a make-do kind of person," Cox said. "But this town deserves more than make-do."

This month, at the urging of Gov. Ted Kulongoski, Cox and other community leaders, business owners and philanthropists formed an Oregon Solutions Team to look into ways to build new schools outside the flood plain.

The team is part of a National Policy Consensus Center program at Portland State University that supports cooperation between government, businesses and nonprofits for sustainable community goals.

In Vernonia, the team will find ways to raise money for new schools and demolish the old buildings. The land could be reused, possibly for community sports fields.

Cox says he doesn't want to spend money repairing a school that should be torn down.

"If it wasn't in the flood plain, we'd have it fixed by now," Cox said.

It's an ambitious project with an estimated cost of $35 million to $50 million -- if the money can be found.

The district's insurance is capped at $9.6 million for buildings and contents, with $2.5 million already spent repairing the grade and middle schools and the district office, plus bringing in portable classrooms for middle and high schoolers.

Tony Hyde, a Columbia County commissioner and former Vernonia mayor, says the funding for new schools will come piece by piece from state and federal grants, private donations and Vernonia taxpayers.

Some community leaders say the future of Vernonia hangs in the balance after two floods in the past 11 years devastated all the schools in the town of 2,200.

"The single most important economic driving force in this community are new schools," Cox said.

The school district is the town's largest employer and provides the most stable jobs. New schools built with a green design and a high-tech curriculum would encourage families to stay and attract new families, Cox said.

"If we don't show significant progress by summer, this town's going to have a mass exodus," Hyde said.

At last count, 50 students -- about 8 percent of the district's student body -- have not returned to school since the flood. They may have transferred to another school district, are living with relatives out of the district or moved away.

If the trend does not reverse, the district could be short about $250,000 a year in operating money, Cox said.