Wednesday, September 5, 2018 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
9
Spruce/ up schools greet stu/ents
By Jim Cornelius
News Editor
PHOTO BY JERRY BALDOCK
Samantha Silva makes a dig vs. Crook County. The Outlaws played in a
tournament and a pre-season game last week.
Outlaws face/ tough
competotoon at tourney
By Rongi Yost
Correspondent
The Lady Outlaws fin-
ished fifth out of the 12 teams
that attended the Mt. View
Tournament held on Friday,
August 31.
Sisters opened pool play
a bit slow against South
Albany, but finished well
and took the first set 25-20.
The Outlaws hung onto the
momentum as they started the
second set, quickly went up
6-0, held the lead, and sailed
to a 25-13 finish. The lead
changed several times in the
third set, both teams battled
for every point, and unfortu-
nately the Outlaws came up
short in a close game, which
ended in a 23-25 loss. Sisters
posted 19 kills in the match,
with Sophie Silva leading the
squad with seven kills.
The Outlaws fell short
by one point, 26-27, in their
next match against a tough
Mt. View team. Mt. View
took the momentum with
them into the second set,
the Outlaws struggled with
their passes, and lost the set
17-25. Sisters settled down
and came out swinging in the
third set, went up 5-0, didn’t
look back, and crushed the
Cougars 25-14. Sisters had
33 kills in the match, again
led by Silva, who recorded
nine.
Sisters wrapped up pool
play and made it to the Gold
Division seeded sixth. They
faced a very good Silverton
squad, struggled to find a
rhythm in their passing game,
and lost in two close sets,
24-26, and 19-25. Silva had
eight kills in the match, and
Kendra Sitz added six.
After their loss to
Silverton, the Outlaws
wanted to finish with a win in
their final match of the tour-
nament against Pendleton.
They regrouped, refocused,
came ready to play, and
won both sets, 25-13, 25-15.
Sisters posted 21 team kills,
led by Greta Davis who tal-
lied seven and Silva, who
added five.
The Outlaws finished the
day with 28 serving aces and
94 kills as a team.
Coach Rory Rush said,
“The girls played well today.
This tournament was about
playing tough competi-
tion, and learning and find-
ing chemistry. It was a great
opportunity for us to work out
some kinks as we get ready to
head into league play. Every
practice, every match, we
continue to improve.”
A cut above
Thanks to the support of
Sisters Country voters and
some additional financial
good fortune, Sisters stu-
dents are returning to school
with considerably improved
facilities.
Sisters Middle School is
the last of the three schools
to undergo renovation funded
by $10.7 million in voter-
approved bonds, augmented
by a $4 million state grant.
The school district decided
last year that the construc-
tion work at SMS would be
too disruptive to conduct dur-
ing the school year, so it was
scheduled for this summer. It
is now wrapping up.
“I’m feeling more and
more confident about open-
ing,” said Sisters Schools
Superintendent Curt Scholl
in an interview last month. “I
think we’ll have 95 percent
of it done when student show
up.”
Construction project man-
ager Brett Hudson told The
Nugget that the SMS work
is under budget — even with
some additional work being
added to the scope, including
a paint job. SMS was allo-
cated a $2.9 million budget
and the project has come in at
$2.8 million.
“We’ve added a lot of
site work, concrete work… I
was able to patch additional
asphalt,” Hudson noted.
Good timing in the bond
market and the extra $4 mil-
lion from the state allowed
the district to set aside $1
million as a fund to cover
deferred maintenance.
“We’ve started to budget
that out over the next five
years,” Scholl said.
Hudson noted that the dis-
trict is already seeing savings
from improved heating and
cooling systems, and from
high-efficiency lighting. He
noted that Reed Stadium’s
lighting is now reduced to
four poles, all for less than
what one pole used to require
in output. The light diffu-
sion from the stadium light-
ing has also been cut, reduc-
ing the impact outside the
stadium.
Scholl said he would like
to see high-efficiency light-
ing in the school gyms.
Additional projects may
be feasible.
Scholl noted, “we’re
tracking right now to have
$1.9 to $2 million left after
the middle school.”
That means that the dis-
trict can pursue construction
of a transportation facility in
the area of the high school,
replacing the cramped and
outdated bus barn at Sisters
Elementary School. A pre-
vious plan for a new bus
barn including some vo-tech
space located in the high
school parking lot proved
the rest !
controversial and was with-
drawn. The current idea is to
build a transportation facility
somewhere in the area of the
SPRD headquarters, accessed
off of Highway 242. The
school board has already allo-
cated $1.5 million for such a
project.
The facility would enable
the district to consolidate its
equipment, provide storage
and a larger, more functional
facility for maintenance of
the fleet. Hudson said he
expects to have a site plan
ready for approval in early
2019.
The district is looking at
another piece of good news
going into the 2018-19 school
year: Enrollment is looking to
be up by about 20 students.
SSD has bumped along
with essentially flat num-
bers for several years. Since
state funding is allocated on
a per-student basis (and funds
from bonds can’t be used for
operations) additional student
enrollment is key to a healthy
operating budget.
Scholl says that, while
numbers always fluctuate,
especially at the beginning of
a school year, the district is
looking at K-8 enrollment of
650 and high school enroll-
ment of 450. In a small dis-
trict, adding 20 students is a
nice shot in the arm.
“That’s my cautiously
optimistic line right now,”
Scholl said.
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