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About The nugget. (Sisters, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (April 25, 2018)
2 Wednesday, April 25, 2018 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon O P I N I O N Transmissions, tires, bonds and levies 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 Unpublished items are not acknowledged or returned.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: Recent letters to the editor attacking Nugget columnist Craig Rullman are disappointingly intolerant: One can disagree with columnists without attempting to silence them. Newspaper columnists are not ambassadors for their papers. They are not running for office or trying to win a popularity contest. Their job is to commit to the page their personal take on the world. The good ones are highly intelligent, talented writers, well-informed, well-read in history, and willing to do the hard work it takes to mine facts from rubble. Agree with him or not, Rullman has all of those qualities and is an outstanding columnist. As a former reporter for a major metropolitan paper, I worked alongside many columnists, some nationally syndicated. These special writ- ers would not have had their jobs but for their opinionated views and original voices, and yes, they were frequently provocative. There are a lot of newspaper columnists from whom to choose. I can disagree with some, yet still learn from them. There are many Nugget readers who look forward eagerly to reading Rullman’s columns. Jane Poss s s s To the Editor: Yesterday I was nearly hit by a car in the crosswalk on Main Avenue. A lady with a dog in her lap was stopped on Larch Street at the stop sign, making a left turn onto Main, heading east past The Nugget. I thought she saw me. She hurriedly made the left turn, then made a screeching halt, barely missing hitting me. She was driving too fast. See LETTERS on page 6 Sisters Weather Forecast Courtesy of the National Weather Service, Pendleton, Oregon Wednesday Thursday 1riday Saturday Sunday Monday Sunny Chance T-storms Chance Showers Chance Showers Chance Showers Chance Showers 65/43 64/46 60/39 53/36 51/33 52/34 The Nugget Newspaper, LLC 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. Editor in Chief: Jim Cornelius Production Manager: Leith Easterling Classifieds & Circulation: Teresa Mahnken Graphic Design: Jess Draper Community Marketing Partners: Patti Jo Beal & Vicki Curlett Accounting: Erin Bordonaro Proofreader: Pete Rathbun Owner: J. Louis Mullen 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. ©2018 The Nugget Newspaper, LLC. 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. I remember vividly when my dad sat me down as a 15-year-old and told me he would help me get my first car. “I will match what you can earn to buy a car,” he said. What did I do? Found the cheapest car I could, with barely a working transmis- sion, to get one as soon as I could. I named it “Sweet Thing.’” As a part of my responsi- bilities with the car, he man- dated that I set up two dis- tinct banking accounts. One account for engine upkeep, tires and maintenance. The second account for gas to make Sweet Thing go. “Each account is for its intended purpose and not to be used for the other,” he stated. A monetary firewall was put up between the two. When I had no gas money, Sweet Thing sat cold in the driveway until I could earn more money or pressure my dad to give a little from the maintenance account. He wouldn’t. Little did I know, my dad was the embodiment of Oregon schools funding: Bonds are for the main- tenance. Levies are for the gas. Just like my car savings accounts, Oregon schools funding law will not let pro- ceeds from one account go to support the other. Two years ago, Sisters passed a school bond for building maintenance and safety upgrades. Those dollars have been invested wisely to make sure our buildings will last and our kids are safe. Now, the renewal for gas money is upon us. Measures 5 (1990) and Measure 50 (1997) changed education funding dramati- cally in Oregon. Before 1990, 70 percent of school funding came from local property taxes, with vot- ers deciding how much they were willing to pay for their schools and also controlling more in terms of how those dollars were invested locally. Today, only 30 percent of school funding comes from local property taxes and the rest is supported by the State’s general fund. Salem essen- tially collects revenue and redistributes it using an equalization formula that “weights” students enrolled based on poverty and other demographic data, as well as special-education needs (called ADMw) and teacher experience. In 2000, Sisters School District residents chose for the first time to imple- ment the Sisters Schools Local Option levy of 75 cents per $1,000 assessed value to provide additional local funding to make our schools outstanding and help our students better compete with their peers nationally. That same levy has been approved by vot- ers three times (2004, 2009, 2013) since then. The last levy vote, in 2013, passed by a 79 percent margin. The Sisters Schools Local Option levy funds 9 percent of the annual oper- ating budget for Sisters schools. This funding equates to approximately 15 teachers or 26 school days. The local option allows our school district to retain great teachers, keep class sizes small and maintain a full school year. The renewal of the levy is key in funding our core cur- riculum classes, special- education and advanced- placement (AP) classes. The levy also helps to support our unique Sisters schools programs like flight science, Interdisciplinary Environmental Expedition (IEE), and the luthier program. Here’s the bottom line: We can keep the gas money coming without raising taxes. The Sisters Schools Local Option levy before us is to renew our gas account. Not asking for more, just keep it the same. The School Board has done the right thing with the bond dollars they were given two years ago. Getting public input, adjust- ing projects as needed and being transparent with their funding process. The car is performing well and our kids are better for it. Let’s keep giving them the gas money to drive toward a brighter future. Vote YES on 9-121, renew our Sisters Schools Local Option levy. Opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer and are not necessarily shared by the Editor or The Nugget Newspaper.
