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About The nugget. (Sisters, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (May 3, 2017)
2 Wednesday, May 3, 2017 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon O P I N I O N The future of our schools By Tiffany Lee Brown 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 Unpublished items are not acknowledged or returned.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. Editor’s note: City Councilor Richard Esterman requested a retraction of a story that ran on March 29. The Nugget stands by the story with a correction (see page 5). The fol- lowing is a statement provided by Councilor Esterman: To the Editor: At a March City Council meeting, City Councilor Richard Esterman approached the Council as a business owner and private citi- zen, rather than as a councilor, to address an issue regarding public events. Specifically, Councilor Esterman requested a fee waiver for the Sisters Wild West Show due to the nature of the event which histori- cally has translated into a large value for the City due to increased traffic and tourism. The Wild West Show is hosted by Councilor Esterman’s business, Central Oregon Shows, and is the only one of its kind in Sisters. The event features nine performances which are free to the public and popular with tour- ists. The Wild West Show generally does not make a profit considering the high cost of overhead and free admission to the public. Central Oregon Shows has always applied for event permits as a for-profit enterprise, although a profit is rarely made. This is the first year Councilor Esterman applied using a charity’s non-profit status because the funds generated during the event benefit that partic- ular charity. The application was rejected, but Councilor Esterman simply reapplied and paid all fees due for a profit event. At the outset, Councilor Esterman, by his own volition, recognized his conflict of inter- est and voluntarily recused himself from dis- cussion and voting on the matter. However, Mr. Esterman’s role as a City Councilor does not prohibit him from participating as a citizen or asking the Council to waive fees or sponsor events that are beneficial to the community. Richard Esterman See LETTERS on page 20 Sisters Weather Forecast Courtesy of the National Weather Service, Pendleton, Oregon Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday Monday Sunny Chance Showers Mostly Sunny Mostly Sunny Mostly Sunny Sunny 76/48 81/50 59/36 53/31 55/32 63/na The Nugget Newspaper, Inc. Website: www.nuggetnews.com 442 E. Main Ave., P.O. Box 698, Sisters, Oregon 97759 Tel: 541-549-9941 | Fax: 541-549-9940 | editor@nuggetnews.com Postmaster: Send address changes to The Nugget Newspaper, P.O. Box 698, Sisters, OR 97759. Third Class Postage Paid at Sisters, Oregon. Publisher - Editor: Kiki Dolson News Editor: Jim Cornelius Production Manager: Leith Williver Classifieds & Circulation: Teresa Mahnken Advertising: Karen Kassy Graphic Design: Jess Draper Proofreader: Pete Rathbun Accounting: Erin Bordonaro The Nugget is mailed to residents within the Sisters School District; subscriptions are available outside delivery area. Third-class postage: one year, $45; six months (or less), $25. First-class postage: one year, $85; six months, $55. Published Weekly. ©2017 The Nugget Newspaper, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. All advertising which appears in The Nugget is the property of The Nugget and may not be used without explicit permission. The Nugget Newspaper, Inc. assumes no liability or responsibility for information contained in advertisements, articles, stories, lists, calendar etc. within this publication. All submissions to The Nugget Newspaper will be treated as uncondition- ally assigned for publication and copyrighting purposes and subject to The Nugget Newspaper’s unrestricted right to edit and comment editorially, that all rights are currently available, and that the material in no way infringes upon the rights of any person. The publisher assumes no responsibility for return or safety of artwork, photos, or manuscripts. Could we, the people of Sisters, help the schools bolster their enrollment to increase their funding? The Nugget’s detailed articles about enrollment and funding help us realize what’s at stake. To really get involved, it would be great to know how school fund- ing operates in the state of Oregon, what we can expect from the new federal admin- istration, and what regula- tions our school district is bound by (versus decisions that the local school board has made). I would welcome an arti- cle that explained in simple terms how these things work; a state school board member I spoke with recently could not point me to a resource like that. She was very help- ful and sent me some of their internal documents. What can I say? I was completely overwhelmed. I left with the impression that various overlapping bureau- cracies handle the money, and that officially, they leave a lot up to the local school districts. In real life, though, we know that each dollar is somehow attached to stu- dents’ attendance, and pub- lic schools are constrained by legal and ethical require- ments to focus resources on helping kids with disabilities and working on remedial learning. If we understood the sys- tem better, community mem- bers might be able to help keep our schools desirable and competitive. As a society we often resist helping those who struggle with poverty, lack of education, or addiction. We vote “yes” on building more prisons and vote no on strengthening the social safety net. Many parents face punishing work schedules and immense caregiving respon- sibilities. So the schools are only partly about educating our children. They’re also compensating for huge ineq- uities that shouldn’t exist in the first place. They provide food, medical exams, coun- seling, stability, and comfort to many children. Is it pos- sible to do all that and be a competitive institution that privileged families support? Your recent article men- tioned a lack of affordable housing in Sisters, which pushes young families out. This is partly due to our town’s high numbers of retir- ees from other, richer cities. Could they become more involved in the schools? And should the Sisters City Council require new devel- opments to make multi-fam- ily units and modest middle- class housing part of Phase I, instead of tacking them onto the end of the building process? The article mentioned competition from innova- tive out-of-district transfer schools, flexible online pro- grams, and homeschool- ing. Sisters schools already have some incredible pro- grams: the average student in America isn’t learning to write well-crafted songs, make beautiful guitars, and build Habitat for Humanity homes! But the small-group, multi-age classrooms and active, outdoor environmental focus of Black Butte School up in Camp Sherman have attracted a deep waiting list for transfers. Down in Bend, families jostle for a chance at the environmentally focused charter school Realms. Could our elementary school feature an outdoor-oriented sustain- ability program? Could we offer more flexible options for families, making it logis- tically easier to combine tra- ditional school attendance with homeschooling, private schooling, and travel? I’ve heard teenagers com- plain of the lack of diver- sity here in town, wanting to transfer someplace that actively welcomes LGBTQ students and people of color. Could Sisters keep those kids here? Could we as a city make it clear to visitors and citizens alike that these beau- tiful high desert skies are not just for straight, white people to enjoy? Safety and health are con- cerns, too. One family left Sisters Elementary School after the kids repeatedly brought home norovirus, causing the parents to lose many work days; the school did not respond with a mod- ern, updated cleaning proto- col. I have a mold allergy, and I can tell you there is defi- nitely mold in the elementary school. If issues like these go unaddressed, then families with the means to do it may go elsewhere. How can we as a com- munity support even more opportunities for our kids, at these wonderful schools full of devoted teachers and staff, and keep our students here in town? Opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer and are not necessarily shared by the Editor or The Nugget Newspaper.