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
