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Wednesday, April 27, 2016 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
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Celebrate community
and our schools
By Winter Lewis
Guest Columnist
Letters to the Editor…
The Nugget welcomes contributions from its readers, which must include the writer’s name, address and phone number. Let-
ters to the Editor is an open forum for the community and contains unsolicited opinions not necessarily shared by the Editor.
The Nugget reserves the right to edit, omit, respond or ask for a response to letters submitted to the Editor. Letters should be
no longer than 300 words. Unpublished items are not acknowledged or returned. The deadline for all letters is noon Monday.
To the Editor:
Voters’ pamphlets are often used as fire
starters on these cold Central Oregon spring
mornings. Not this time, not in my house.
Curious, I immediately flipped through
to find the arguments against the upcom-
ing school bond measure. There were none.
BUT, there were several pages in favor of
the bond. My favorite snippits: “...$10.25 per
month”(assessed $300k); and “Our commu-
nity supports our kids and our kids support our
community.” — J. Bachtold
I married into a third-generation Aylor fam-
ily from our tiny town of Sisters and often hear
stories of pride in how our unique community
stands in the gap for each other. As a parent of
a 2012 grad, I can attest to the direct impact
that Sisters School District was in our son’s
success, who will graduate nursing school this
Friday after four arduous/grueling years.
I’m so thankful for this community and fel-
low teachers who supported the prior construc-
tion bond 14 years ago, from which Sebastian
directly benefitted.
I am a homeowner who will be honored to
be part of the financial responsibility from this
bond.
Recently, I heard a keynote speak of the
irony of magazine title progression (or deteri-
oration). First, it was Life magazine (included
everyone, everywhere), then People magazine
(a slightly narrower view), then there was Us
magazine (whatever group you identify with,
but certainly not everyone) and now in 2016
we have Self magazine (because that is who
we now only cater to. Really?).
Please look up and see how 35 cents a day
will positively impact all of us who enjoy this
beautiful place we are fortunate enough to call
home.
Future generations will learn by example
what it means to invest in ALL generations, as
it is time to rally and invest in theirs.
Three yes votes coming from our home
(one absentee).
Becky Aylor
See LETTERS on page 9
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On May 17, the Sisters
School District is proposing
a general obligation bond
for major maintenance and
facility upgrades, Measure
9-108.
The intent of a bond is
to free up dollars for use in
the classroom immediately,
take care of “100,000-mile”
repairs, and upgrade facili-
ties that are no longer in
working order.
As a preface, it needs to
be emphasized that bonds
are an integral and nor-
mal part of the funding of
our schools in tandem with
local option levies and fixed
tax rates. Since 1990, fixed
tax rates for schools have
dropped 30 percent per stu-
dent in inflation-adjusted
dollars. Local levies and
bonds help compensate for
this drop.
A short survey of tax
liabilities in neighboring
districts demonstrates that
the Sisters School District
is below Redmond, Bend/
La Pine and Madras schools.
With the addition of an over-
due bond, the total tax rate
for Sisters School District
will be at or below these
neighboring districts. This
is cause for celebration. Our
schools have historically
performed better, by state
academic benchmarks, com-
pared to our neighboring
districts, at a lower cost.
It should be noted that
with the State’s “new nor-
mal” of school funding, with
bonds and levies support-
ing reduced fixed-rate dol-
lars, school districts must be
creative in their financing
of building maintenance.
As such, building mainte-
nance can be divided into
two main categories: rou-
tine maintenance and major
maintenance. Think of it like
your car. The Sisters School
District has taken care of all
regular oil changes, rota-
tion of tires, and changed
spark plugs through its
routine maintenance pro-
grams. Major maintenance,
or the “100,000-mile” proj-
ects, have been funded at a
lower rate since 2011 when,
in the face of a recession,
the District did not reis-
sue a bond as others were
retired. Measure 9-108 will
get us back to healthy bond
levels to invest more in
major maintenance projects.
Beyond the funding
nuances, let’s celebrate what
is good about this bond, the
schools and this community.
Notably, the process in
which this bond was formed
deserves celebration. The
new administration and
school board engaged the
Sisters constituents to help
shape the list of major
maintenance items to be
brought before the voters.
They listened, calibrated
and are ready to execute
the prioritized maintenance
with an independent proj-
ect manager and separate
citizens oversight commit-
tee. Building in these new
oversight mechanisms will
support the District’s goal
of sound quality and prudent
use of funds.
Let’s celebrate that
enrollment decline, after
years of economic head-
winds, has plateaued out
with signs of growth. A
bond now will help us catch
these shifting, favorable
winds. Functional facili-
ties, improved classroom
resources, and a renewed
pride in the schools will aid
recruitment of new fami-
lies and neighboring stu-
dents in an open enrollment
environment.
Let’s celebrate the fact
that the presence of strong
schools has contributed to
the improvement of our per-
sonal wealth, locally. Ask
any Realtor in town: The
presence of good schools
supports a strong housing
market.
Let’s celebrate the sym-
biotic relationship of the
schools and the community.
The intellectual resources
available within the com-
munity have given our kids
programs that are simply
not found in any other dis-
trict. Flight instruction,
Americana Project, Luthier
programs, IEE and Ecos
are all rich programs that
supplement and support our
students’ formal educational
opportunities.
Finally, our new adminis-
tration has been busy build-
ing on these programs to
stay nimble in a dynamic
and changing educational
landscape. Our future looks
bright. Let’s celebrate this.
Join me in voting “Yes” on
Measure 9-108.
Opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer and
are not necessarily shared by the Editor or The Nugget Newspaper.