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About Applegater. (Jacksonville, OR) 2008-current | View Entire Issue (May 1, 2011)
Applegater “Tick Talk” by Julie Wheeler Saturday, May 7, 2:00 pm Ruch Librar y It’s that amazing time of the year in the Applegate! And our local ticks know it, too. Can we interest you in learning what precautions you can take to keep from getting ticks? How about the correct methods for removing ticks? Presenter Julie Wheeler can tell you those things and plenty more including getting your ticks identified and tested for the Lyme spirochete and recognizing Lyme symp- toms. Her talk will include the DVD, “Under our Skin.” There’ll also be time for questions and answers. Have we got you itching and looking yet? Julie Wheeler, Applegate Valley born and raised, is currently an Occupational Health and Safe- ty Manager for the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest and has a small business teaching First Aid classes. You’re in good hands! This is another excellent program presented by your Friends of the Ruch Li- brary - it’s yet another way we’re celebrating Saturdays at the library! No charge, but donations to support the library are always appreciated. Pat Gordon • 541-899-7655 Benefit Performance for Ruch Library Music from Islands Real and Imaginary with Mark Kailana Nelson Saturday, May 14, 7:00 pm, Ruch Library Mark Nelson, multi-instrumen- talist, brings together two of the world’s most beautiful instrumental styles – the Hawaiian slack key guitar and Mark’s ground-breaking Celtic dulcimer. Result? An enchanting new sound. His show emphasizes the connec- tions between music as diverse as Irish jigs, Mississippi country blues, Appalachian ballads and Hawaiian slack key guitar. How did Scotts-Irish farmers in Kentucky wind up playing a German folk zither? How did a Spanish guitar turn up in Hawaii? And did the ukulele really travel from Portugal to Hawaii and then to Tin Pan Alley? Mark answers these questions with songs played on Appalachian dul- cimer, Swedish hummel, ukulele, guitar, bones, and anything else he can carry on stage. Mark’s story: his career started well before he could drive. In the 1970s, he created a whole new vocabulary for Appa- lachian dulcimer and guitar. His first place win at the National Dulcimer Champion- ships in Kansas, 1979, led to appearances at festivals, colleges, and coffeehouses across North America and Europe, and a record- ing career that continues. When not on the road, he calls the Applegate Valley home. He is one of the first non-Hawaiian musicians to master the Ki Ho ‘alu, or slack key guitar. His playing honors those who came before, and his teaching passes it on to the next generation. Mark weaves stories and humor with his music. He’s performed from Bar- row to Boston; Sligo to San Diego, sharing the stage with performers as diverse as Gro- ver Washington, Jr., Keola Beamer, Norton Buffalo, Phoebe Snow, Doc Watson, and George Winston. He once worked as a banjo-playing gorilla in Dublin, but that’s another story… Mark’s performance is sponsored by the Friends of Ruch Library. Suggested donation—$10. Con- tribute more if you can since all the money raised will benefit our Ruch branch library. The Friends have no administrative over- head. Special thanks to Mark for his generosity! For more information call the li- brary at 541-899-7438. Pat Gordon • 541-899-7655 Jackson County Library Services’ Summer Reading Program “One World—Many Stories” is the theme this summer at the Jackson County Library and children are invited to visit the library and explore the world through books, activities and storytelling. Registration for the program begins as soon as school is out in June. Children age 3-12 are invited to sign up at their local branch library, read or listen to ten books, and earn reading incentives such as a free meal coupon from HomeTown Buffet. Parents of infants and toddlers 0-36 months can read to their children and re- ceive a gift book, a signed certificate, and a bookmark. Teens can participate in the “You Are Here” reading program, attend activi- ties, write reviews and earn the chance to win a Flip Mino video camera. Spring 2011 11 Woodland Charter School Supporters Forge Ahead Despite an initial “no” vote, Waldorf –methods Charter School developers seek means to open in Fall 2011 On February 7, the Three Riv- ers School District Board of Education voted down a proposal to sponsor the first rural Waldorf-methods charter school in the state of Oregon. The school is proposed for the Applegate Valley, an area with a strong history of residents seeking alternative educational options for their children. Nearly two years of work by dedicated community members and parents were threatened by the “no” vote, but the organizers of the Woodland Charter School have regrouped and are forging ahead. They plan to take their request for sponsor- ship to the State Department of Educa- tion if needed. At issue is the potential financial impact of the Woodland Charter School on the Three Rivers School District. With a proposed maximum student population of 85 children, it will require $404,700 in ADMw (Average Daily Membership weighted) funds to operate the school in the first year (2011-2012). In a year when TRSD has had to cut 15 days from the school year to make bud- get, this amount sounds like a hard pill to swallow. But, as usual, the funding issues are complex and nuanced. While TRSD is claiming that the $404,700 will come out of their pockets to start Woodland Charter School, they’re not giving the public the whole story. Here’s a basic primer on ADMw funding for charter schools: • The state of Oregon awards ap- proximately $6000 per enrolled student via the State School Fund. • Those funds for the students at the charter school are delivered to the sponsoring district. • The district retains a percent- age of those funds (anywhere from 10-20%), and then passes the money through to the charter school. • The charter school uses the 80-90% remaining to cover its operat- ing expenses, including facilities rental/ purchase, salaries and benefits, supplies, materials, professional services, and utilities. In the case of Woodland Charter School, homeschool families and stu- dents who are being educated outside of TRSD make up the core proposed student population (86%). These students, who will be new to TRSD, will provide a new revenue source to the cash-strapped district. At the pro- posed rate of 85% pass-through, TRSD stands to gain $69,300 from Woodland students in the first year of operation. But TRSD fiscal managers have their eyes on that $404,700 in “start-up” costs. They believe this to be their “loss” in the first year of operation. What they are not explaining to the general public is that the $404,700 needed to operate Woodland would not be subtracted from the ADMw award that the state gives for each of the existing TRSD students (which totals approximately $29 mil- lion), but instead it would subtracted from the extended ADMw award. The state of Oregon allows school districts like TRSD that are experiencing declining enrollment to request a special extended ADMw award to help cushion their budgets. Here’s how the extended ADMw comes into play with the Wood- land Charter School: • TRSD overestimates the num- ber of students that will attend district schools in 2011-2012 by approx. 150 students. • Oregon DOE awards 150 “ghost” students worth of extended ADMw (approx. $900,000). • Woodland Charter School’s real students require $404,700 of that $900,000 for their education. This “ghost student” funding is the crux of the financial dilemma regarding Woodland Charter School’s sponsorship approval. TRSD is within their legal rights to request the extended ADMw, but in denying Woodland Char- ter School students because they will cut into the “ghost student” funding, TRSD is simultaneously arguing for state as- sistance because of declining enrollment and denying the possibility of Woodland Charter School to students who would help increase district enrollment. This doesn’t make sense. The developers of the Woodland Charter School have submitted a revised proposal to the TRSD Board of Educa- tion and it will be voted upon Monday, March 7 at the Three Rivers School Dis- trict offices in Murphy. (Editor note: this was subsequently voted down.) Should the TRSD Board deny the proposal, there is a process for mediation. Woodland de- velopers will ask for an immediate move to state board sponsorship, and can do so if both parties waive mediation. Contact info: info@woodland- charterschool.org; www.woodlandchar- terschool.org and 541.846.4246 Contact: Stacey Denton, Wood- land Charter School Project Coordinator Celebrate National Library Week April 10-16, 2011 Everyone is invited to special sum- mer reading activities and performances at branch libraries around Jackson County. For more information, contact your local branch library or visit our Web site at www.jcls.org. Photo above: Applegate Branch 2010 Sum- mer Program winner displays his Barnes & Noble gift certificate. In 2010 over 5700 children, teens, and adults participated in the Summer Reading Program at Jackson County Libraries and read over 50,000 books. And remember—in Jackson County your Library is available 24-7 @ www.jcls.org
