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WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2018 ܂ SILVERTONAPPEAL.COM
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‘Kicker’ tax refund is projected
$686 million will likely go out in Oregon in first half of 2020
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Personal and corporate income tax collections were
higher than forecast as job growth remained strong in
Oregon, state economists said on Wednesday.
All industries are expected to grow this year and
next, with construction, professional and business
services and leisure-hospitality leading the way, state
economists said Wednesday.
Construction jobs grew by 9 percent in the 2018 fis-
cal year and were expected to grow 4 percent in 2019.
“The housing market’s revived; the construction
numbers continue to come in above our expectation,”
senior economist Josh Lehner told the House Interim
Committee On Revenue.
Second quarter personal income tax collections
were up $85.7 million from the June forecast. Personal
income taxes make up 85 to 90 percent of the state’s
general fund, Lehner said.
Second quarter corporate income tax collections
A summer full
of software
were up $21.4 million from the June forecast.
A personal “kicker” tax refund of $686 million is
projected to go out in the first half of 2020. It’s the sec-
ond-largest in the state’s history, but because the pop-
ulation has grown, the kickers per capita are expected
to be on par with what typical kicker size would be,
Lehner said.
The average payment to taxpayers is projected to be
$336. Those in the highest adjusted grow income
bracket of $401,200 and above can expect $6,787.
Those earning $26,300 to $47,800 per year can expect
$169. The kickers are returned in the form of credits.
Silver Falls
program
boosts
teacher pay
Christena Brooks Special to Salem Statesman Journal
USA TODAY NETWORK
Maddy Traver worked as a tech intern over the summer at Mark Twain Elementary School.
CHRISTENA BROOKS/SPECIAL TO THE APPEAL TRIBUNE
H.S. students gain experience working with school tech
Christena Brooks Special to Salem Statesman Journal
USA TODAY NETWORK
Sharpened pencils and freshly waxed floors. Post-
ers not yet dog-eared by students passing by. Walls
painted, corners dusted. Desks in rows that would
make a marine sergeant proud.
Ask any custodian: the first day back to school on
Sept. 4 was months in the making.
And nowhere was the summer rush greater than in
the Silver Falls School District’s technology depart-
ment, where employees serviced everything comput-
er-related in 13 school buildings.
“In the summer, every piece of equipment gets un-
plugged so schools can be cleaned,” said Drew Hinds,
technology director. “We update antivirus software,
do malware checks on all the machines, and put ev-
erything back together.”
Which is why students such as Jonathan Hansen,
Levi Worley, Maddy Traver, Angel Lopez and Mitchell
See TECH, Page 2A
Here, Jonathan Hansen updates some software on a
school computer. The tech interns earned about
$10.75 an hour while serving the school campuses
over the summer break.
Vance Day takes case to Supreme Court
Whitney Woodworth Salem Statesman Journal
USA TODAY NETWORK
Claiming Oregon courts denied him due process
and violated his freedom of religion and speech, for-
mer Marion County Judge Vance Day is appealing his
three-year suspension for misconduct to the U.S. Su-
preme Court.
In an amicus brief filed on his behalf, the Freedom
of Conscience Defense Fund argued that the Oregon
Supreme Court intentionally "targeted" Day because
of his faith.
Day filed his petition appealing his suspension on
July 23.
Appointed to the Marion County bench in 2011 by
Gov. John Kitzhaber and elected to a six-year term in
2012, Day soon gained ire and media attention for his
sometimes controversial actions.
Day was accused of refusing to marry same-sex
couples, allowing a felon to handle a firearm, hanging
an art display with a portrait of Adolf Hitler in the
courthouse and intimidating referees at his son's soc-
cer match.
The Commission on Judicial Fitness and Disability
voted unanimously in 2016 to recommend removing
Day from the bench for ethics violations.
Day's case was argued before the Oregon Supreme
Court. In March, the court ruled the commission had
proven Day was guilty of six of eight misconduct
charges and ordered that he be suspended for three
years without pay.
Day is also facing criminal charges separate from
his ethics cases for allegedly allowing then-felon Bri-
an Shehan, a former Navy SEAL and participant in his
Veteran's Treatment Court, to handle a firearm. Day
was charged with two counts of illegal possession of a
firearm by a felon and two counts of first-degree offi-
cial misconduct.
A two-track pay scale for teachers in Silverton
makes apples-to-apples comparisons with other
Oregon school districts less than straightforward.
So, a report this spring showing Silver Falls School
District is eight from the bottom in teacher pay
among Oregon’s largest school districts overlooked
its higher pay scale for teachers pursuing profession-
al development.
Last year, 23 percent of local teachers were en-
rolled in the district’s PEER program, which stands
for Professional Educator Excellence Roadmap, an
alternative wage scale that pays roughly $3,000 per
year more to those willing to document and share
their research, projects and results, said Asst. Supt.
Dandy Stevens.
“We give teachers the option of getting into PEER
each year. The first year we had 30 people; last year,
we had 56,” she said. “Teachers come up with a pro-
ject – they really make it their own – and share it with
others.”
PEER was first offered to local teachers in the 2016-
17 school year. Seventeen teachers and principals, an
administrator and the president of the union created
the model after receiving a grant from the Chalk-
board Project, an education advocacy group.
That grant expired this year, but PEER continues,
its payroll costs built into the budget. Stevens said
she’s aware of two other districts with similar “cre-
ative compensation models.”
“The program really is unique,” she said. “It builds
capacity within our district and recognizes the ex-
perts we have here.”
Past PEER projects include one teacher’s creation
of health lesson plans for all the other instructors at
her school. Another was a middle school math teach-
er’s targeted use of standardized testing data, which
resulted in large academic gains for struggling stu-
dents, said administrator Jennifer Hannan.
“Teachers do exceptional work,” she said. “PEER is
a cool program because they can get credit for what
they’re already doing, contributing to the profession-
al learning community. We want to encourage them
to be teacher-leaders and get paid for it.”
This fall, her office of Teaching and Learning will
take over administration of the PEER program from
the human resources department. Teachers can opt
into it during open enrollment.
In the 2016-17 school year – which is the latest year
featured in the latest Oregon School Boards Associa-
tion salary report – Silver Falls’ base wage for an in-
coming teacher with no experience and a bachelor’s
degree was $35,813. If that teacher opted into PEER,
he or she made $3,047 more, for an annual salary of
$38,860.
Compared with 39 other large school districts –
those with 3,000 or more students – Silver Falls
teachers on the standard pay scale earned more than
teachers at just eight other districts: Glendale, San-
tiam Canyon, Coos Bay, Springfield, Roseburg, North
Wasco County, Lebanon and North Bend.
But, under the PEER model, a teacher with the
same qualifications earned more than 28 other dis-
tricts.
In the study, Silver Falls was the eighth smallest
See PAY, Page 2A
See COURT, Page 2A
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In the 2016-17 school year, Silver Falls’ base wage
for an incoming teacher with no experience and a
bachelor’s degree was $35,813.
DANIELLE PETERSON/STATESMAN JOURNAL