22 Spring 2021 Applegater
NEXT GENERATION | SCHOOL NEWS
Three Rivers School District bond on May ballot
BY TOM CARSTENS
“Students should be safe, warm, and
dry.” This is the stated goal of the Three
Rivers School District facilities managers.
With 15 schools and 4,500 students in
a two-county district the size of Rhode
Island, this is no small task.
To that end, the district has just paid
off its last 20-year, $24 million facilities
bond, which was sold at a tax rate of
$0.74 per $1,000 assessed property value.
With that money and several smaller
funding sources, the district built two
new schools and continued improvements
and repairs at the others. Since the district
uses state funds for our schools generally
to cover classroom costs and teacher
salaries, facilities maintenance is up to the
taxpayers. And it’s not cheap.
According to Three Rivers School
District superintendent Dave Valenzuela,
it’s again time for repairs. And they’re big
ones—all related to keeping our students
safe, warm, and dry. The school board has
identified what they call “the Big Four”
because every school requires extensive
repairs in these four crucial areas. The
repair bill is expected to come to around
$66.5 million.
No. 1: Heating, Ventilation, and Air
Conditioning (HVAC). The systems range
in age from 73 years to 17 years. They
are barely able to keep up. Cost to repair:
$28.6 million. Just last year, one school
suffered a boiler failure and had to suspend
classes for several days.
No. 2: Water Systems. The water
pipes and drainage systems are old and
deteriorating. Cost to repair: $2 million.
As an example, Lincoln Savage’s sewer
system has completely failed and must be
replaced.
No. 3: Roofing. All building roofs must
be replaced. Many are over 30 years old,
and some are leaking badly. Repairs are
no longer cost-effective. Cost to replace:
$29.2 million.
No. 4: Pavement. Parking lots,
driveways, sidewalks, walk areas, and
play areas are crumbling, creating hazards
for the kids. Cost to repair: $6.7 million.
But there’s more. After an exhaustive,
wrenching process, each of the 15 schools
has identified its own top three priorities
outside of the Big Four. These cover
various items like ceiling tiles, security
fencing, outdoor lighting, fire alarms,
door locks, flooring, wood rot, exterior
paint, and outdoor classrooms. These basic
repairs come to an additional $18 million.
The grand total? It’s $85 million.
Valenzuela says there’s no padding here.
In fact, the list has been pruned quite a bit.
The district’s own Master Facilities Plan
has identified a whopping $152 million in
needed repairs and construction. The $85
million addresses only the most crucial half
of that figure.
As of mid-February, it looks like the
school board has decided to put forth
an $85 million, 20-year bond levy on
Home school promises
to teach children well
BY AMBER BISHOP
Did you hear? The world is changing,
and so is education.
This past fall a new school opened its
doors in the Applegate Community—
virtual doors, that is. This unique school
might better be considered a bridge
between homeschoolers and educational
resources—a school that genuinely
supports each student on his or her
individual path of learning. Many of the
families involved are excited, too, about
partnering with this school to build a
campus for uniquely Applegate-designed
and implemented learning programs for
our children and high school students.
In the words of Director Bill Watkins:
“TEACH-NW stands for Transforming
Educational Access in Communities and
Homes. TNW operates on the mission
to meet the diverse educational needs of
learners through its application of the
3W principles: Wherever, Whenever,
Whatever: Wherever the student is located
(home, school, or mobile); Whenever the
student needs access to content (any time
of the day); and Whatever the content
needs may be with diverse course offerings
regardless of the student’s geographic
location in Oregon.”
In TNW, families are free to design their
children’s own education from scratch or to
follow whichever curriculum most appeals
to them from Waldorf to Montessori,
Classical Education to Sudbury School
and many more. Each family works with
an Educational Facilitator (EF) to develop
an Individual Learning Plan, a “living”
document stating the topics each student
will be learning over the course of a year
and the plan for learning them. Families
are encouraged to update it frequently.
The EF helps families express their
work in terms the state accepts. Families
are in weekly contact with the EF and
submit quarterly reports with photos
demonstrating students’ growth and
subject matter proficiency or the results
of standardized testing, whichever the
family prefers.
Families are also allotted $2,000 per
year per student for education-related
expenses. This money can cover a variety
of things: books, art supplies, online
classes, a microscope, entrance fees to
the May ballot. This would tally out to a
property tax rate of $0.93 per $1,000 of
assessed value, or 23 cents more than the
last district levy. For the median price of
a home in Josephine County, $220,000,
this comes to an annual bond bill of $211.
This represents an average annual increase
of about $100. This comes to about $8.30
per month, or less than two grande-size
vanilla lattes at Starbucks.
Indications are that the annual bill
to taxpayers will compare favorably with
other local tax rates. This bond issue will
cost a typical property owner:
• about half of what Applegaters pay for
Applegate Valley Fire District services.
• about twice what Jackson County
residents pay for library services.
• about two-thirds of the tax bill
contemplated for the proposed Josephine
County Fire District.
• quite a bit less than what is being
charged in other local school districts.
So the proposed bond issue generally
compares favorably with some of the other
tax rates around us, but the question voters
will have to decide is “Is it worth keeping
our kids safe, warm, and dry?”
As Valenzuela puts it, “Facilities
upgrades are needed now.” And he doesn’t
want to divert state funds away from the
classrooms to make that happen.
Ballots will be mailed May 18.
Tom Carstens
541-846-1025
bumsonwheels@gmail.com
For technical help in preparing this article,
the author would like to thank Lisa Cross,
accounting manager, Three Rivers School
District; and John Petach, finance controller,
Medford School District. Any errors belong
to the author.
An introduction to bond — school bond
Bond rates are a bit difficult to understand. Their value is expressed as a ratio of
the dollar assessment to the taxpayer per thousand dollars of the assessed value of the
owned property. The rate as expressed at the sale of the bond will generally decrease
over the life of the bond, largely because (a) the assessed value of most property will
inflate over this period, and (b) new construction sales during this period add to the
pool of contributing taxpayers. Neither of these factors, however, has much effect on
a taxpayer's annual bill, which usually stays fairly constant until the bond is paid off.
So when you read, for example, of a bond rate shrinking over 20 years from 74 cents
to 47 cents, as happened with the last bond issued by the Three Rivers School District,
you should remember that your total annual tax bill did not appreciably change.
—Tom Carstens
ScienceWorks or OMSI, tutoring, a
school laptop or tablet, martial arts classes,
gymnastics, etc. Given the sacrifices
taxpaying families make in order to
homeschool, this allotment can be a real
game changer for many.
Studies show greater happiness and
long-term success among homeschooled
children. This makes sense, since most
people learn best when following their
own interests and learning in a hands-on,
relevant way. Some homeschoolers learn
basic math skills through a passion for
baking, building, or starting their own
small businesses. Others learn science
through participating in farm life such as
gardening and animal care, while many
polish their reading and writing skills as an
essential means in pursuing their various
personal goals or sharing their adventures
with others through letters or a blog.
My family loves listening to audiobooks
of stories set during a given time period
while completing tasks such as folding
laundry, picking through elderberries, or
pulling weeds. Many subjects are offered
through online classes, as well. There are
certainly as many ways to homeschool as
there are homeschoolers.
While not for everybody, homeschooling
works wonderfully for many families.
Children gain practical skills and deeper
understanding of systems integration,
cause and effect, and teamwork. Most
homeschoolers receive broad socialization
as they are often learning in real-world
settings with interaction among diverse
age groups. Often, homeshooling parents
even report great satisfaction with the
arrangement, citing improved family
relationships and more confidence in their
children’s wellbeing.
TEACH-NW is a wonderful source
of support and accountability for local
families interested in homeschooling.
Technological advances make these services
easily accessible, an element especially
important for rural communities.
We have gained additional options
for our children and are actively working
toward the goal of building a centrally
located Applegate campus that will
include high school. The TNW is fulfilling
its mission of facilitating innovative,
hybrid approaches to education with
limitless potential for hands-on, real-world
learning.
If you would like further information
about TEACH-NW, its history, and/or
homeschooling, please take the time to
look at the following resources:
• marcola.k12.or.us/teach-nw is the
main TNW website, which includes
links to the waiting list and vendor/
employment applications.
• n h e r i . o r g i s t h e we b s i t e o f
T h e Na t i o n a l Ho m e E d u c a t i o n
Research Institute.
Amber Bishop
applegateteachnw@gmail.com