9— 6A N 0Y (O re.) POST Thur» . Jan. 99 1907 (S k . I)
The SdnäyPost
Editorial & Opinion
Scott Newton, editor
Kimberly Nelson, advertising representative
Board wise to wait
for levy election
The Sandy Elementary School District board is wise to wait
until September for its first levy election.
The district has a history of failing to pass levies early in the
year. And that makes sense. In M ay, the turnout seems to
favor the “ no” side and the district is unable to provide infor
mation that is as accurate as what it can provide later in the
year.
In September, everyone seems to have a renewed apprecia
tion for school.
In deciding to wait until September for a levy attempt, the
school board is in step with its stated goals. One goal of board
members has been to have the budget committee produce a
budget that was sufficient to educate students without wasting
money. Patrons w ill argue over whether that has been ac
complished.
Regardless, board members work hundreds of hours with no
purpose in mind other than to provide a good service. They do
not go into the budget process planning to submit an
unrealistic levy with the intention of reducing it after a couple
of levy failures.
I t does not make sense, then, to submit a budget that w ill be
voted down simply as a protest over the unfair burden of pro
perty taxes.
Without facing a M ay deadline, the budget committee can
do its work a little later and have more accurate numbers to
work with. In September, patrons will have exact figures to
consider — such as the rate per $1,000 of valuation — and not
estimates.
I f voters reject the levy in September, the board and the
public w ill still have time to take a look at the budget before
the critical November election.
Even by waiting until September, the teachers, parents,
children and community w ill not be in any worse of a predica
ment than they have been in since 1983.
It is our opinion that the vote Thursday was not one of
unresponsiveness by the board, but one of common sense. The
public is not interested in debating school budgets all summer.
The public is interested in tax reform.
The board deserves credit for having looked at its recent
history, recognizing that the system was not working and ac
ting to minimize expenses and risks.
Letters to the editor
appreciates them as much as we do.
I could write pages of exampes of
what Dan and Ginny have done, but
due to space, I can’t.
Dan and Ginny, if you ever want to
come back, we’ve got room at our
house!
Ralph and Teri Berriman
Winchester, 111.
P.S. Has Ginny ever shown you one
of her decorated cakes?
Spooners’ efforts
in character
I read with great interest your arti
cle reg ard in g Dan and Ginny
Spooner in the Dec. 11,1986 edition of
your paper.
We knew the Spooners well when
they lived in Virden, 111. Ginny cared
for our children and they called them
“Grandma Ginny" and “ Papa D an."
I ’m not surprised that Ginny (and
D a n ) would take on such a project as
the one of refurbishing dolls for
Christmas baskets — that’s the way
they are and always have been.
I think Ginny’s motto for life has
been “ love and fun.” Anything I ’ve
ever seen her do was out of love and
she always threw in fun.
We still miss them deeply and I
hope that the community of Sandy
Family says
thank you
The fam ily of Alma Phillips would
like to thank friends, fam ily and the
Mount Hood Hospice for their sup
port in our time of sorrow.
Ernest Phillips and fam ily
Sandy
Where to write
phone 221-3386.
Sea. Bob Packwood, R-Oregon, 259
Russell Building, Washington, D.C.,
20510. 202-224-5244. Portland office
phone 221-3370.
S ta te
R e p r é s e n ta tiv e
Bob
Shlprack, D-Dist. 23, 22610 Forest
Park Rd., Beavercreek, Ore., 97004.
631-3817.
State Senator Bob Kintigh, D-Dist.
14, 38865 E. Cedar F lat Road, Spr
ingfield, 97478. 746-1842.
Sen. M ark Hatfield, R-Oregon, 711
H art Building, Washington, D.C.,
20510. 202-224-3753. Portland office
Rep. Denny Smith, R-5th Dist., 1213
Longworth Building, Washington,
D.C., 20515. 202-225-5711. Salem office
phone (toll free) 800-452-7889.
Policy on letters
le tte rs to the editor should be
typed, double-spaced and signed. An
address and telephone number
should also be provided, although on
ly the name of the letter writer and
the city or area he is from will be
published.
Letter writers may also wish to in
clude a title or office held if it is ap
propriate considering the subject
m atter of the letter.
The news deadline of noon Tuesday
is also the deadline for letters to the
editor.
Letters should be accurate, free of
libelous remarks and in good taste.
This newspaper attempts to publish
all letters it receive it receives from
area residents.
We reserve the right to edit letters
to conform to style guidelines or for
length. letters should be 300 words
long.
Pioneer Association to meet
Problems different for pioneer schools
by M ILE S AUB IN
Special for The Post
With financial issues all resolved
locally, it might be interesting to take
a look at the early financing of
schools.
The early pioneers were fairly
good at school financing — one way
or another, with or without.
Much of the information in this a r
ticle was obtained from the minutes
of School District No. 94 board
meetings during the “Gay Ninties”
of the 19th century. The area was
known as North Logan and was
located across the river from Barton.
Some years later the Deep Creek
Grade School became District No. 94,
and the Logan records ended up at
Deep Creek. Deep Creek is now part
of the Boring School District.
Back in the '90s there were many
o n e -ro o m
schools
s c a tte re d
throughout Clackamas County. Most
sat in the center of a district approx
imately three miles square. A two-
mile walk to school was considered a
child’s capacity.
School terms were three or four
months in length, and usually did not
operate during the busy seasons on
the farm. The number of terms
varied from one to three. Ed Hera,
who lived near Kelso, said that when
school was out in Kelso, he attended
school in Boring.
This system required a relatively
large number of teachers, most of
whom were women. They obtained
credentials by taking county or state
examinations held at Oregon City in
A p r il and A u g u s t. W ith th e
equivalent of an eighth grade
diploma, a teacher could qualify for
at least one of three types of creden
tials. Salary scales began at 690 a
month, but a few poor communities
paid less.
To keep steadily employed, a
teacher moved from school to school
as openings occurred. Records show
that most teachers taught in several
different schools.
There was a large turnover of
teachers. Many women were lost by
taking the marriage route. Every
rural community had eligible males,
some of whom could reasonably be
students as old as or older than their
teacher.
Teachers were rated high in the
prospective wife category. They
would give prestige to the family
name and give birth to well-educated
children. Male teachers were not
considered matrimonial plums.
In those early days school finance
was managed by very frugal school
boards. This characteristic of school
boards continued until the end of
World War I I , when more money
became available for education.
Following is a 1891-92 financial
report of the North Logan School
Number of students, 31; number of
months taught in district, four;
number of legal voters, 11.
Estimated value of building, in
cluding both outhouses, 6260; fur
niture, 683.50; maps, globes, charts,
tablets, 61-40; average teacher’s
salary per month, 633.75.
Money received from county,
6102.49; money received from state.
642; money from other sources, 6146;
total, 6250.49.
Teacher’s pay, 6135; new school
furniture, 663.50; school supplies,
61.40; total. 6199.
Balance on hand, 650.50
The Sandy Pioneer and Historical
Association will hold its quarterly
meeting at 1 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 25
in the Mel Haneberg Community
Center, 38348 Pioneer Blvd.
The program will feature Jean
nette Wilson, an authority on anti
ques, who will do evaluations. People
are invited to take items for evalua
tion. Wilson’s specialty is glassware
East County image has wind in tales
They say we're not supposed to talk
about it.
They say that East Multnomah
County is polishing up a new image
and, in the interests of selling houses
and industrial sites, we no longer
speak of — hush now — the East
Wind.
The image-makers put it this way:
I f we want to be high-tech and middle
income, we have to keep a low profile
about the you-know-what from the
east.
That, at least, makes sense. A low
profile is a real help in the East Wind.
But I don’t think not talking about it
will make this issue blow over. They
can plow up our berry fields and pave
over our cabbage patches, but all the
hot a ir in the world w ill not reverse
the cold draft that chills us when the
door to the Columbia Gorge is left
open.
This business of muffling the East
Wind could put an end to a whole
wind mystique. Those of us who live
where the gorge exhales take kind of
a perverse pride in it.
Oh sure, there are the gully
dwellers, those lily-livered types who
seek out holes in the landscape where
they can dwell safely out of reach of
the cold blast. Gully-dwellers live
ly foolhardy, they have plate glass
windows fa c in g east. F o r an
evening's sport they watch the glass
billow like a sail.
They are the ones who tell East
Wind stories.
People such as Bob Scott of Spr
ingdale, who says you don’t know
what wind is until you see whitecaps
in your toilet.
•S
* ------
•n o o W n A * NMDn
aam m
A-
securely in the lee of cliffs and watch
he clouds scudding by overhead.
There are cowards living on the
backside of Larch Mountain who
don’t know that snow can fall
sideways. There are pantywaists
who live in Sandy and commute to
Gresham and brag about growing
bananas at home.
Their opposites are the gutsy gust-
gorgers, the hardy folks who live in
the very teeth of the gale. They have
never seen the smoke from their
chimneys. They keep anemometers
to measure the wind. If they are real
That
is
no e x a g g e r a tio n .
Sometimes the wind comes down
from the gorge, bends over a house
and sucks at all those mysterious
pipes on the roof. The way I unders
tand it, some of those lead to the
toilet and the wind can play havoc
with the water in the bowl.
Troutdale Mayor Sam Cox, who in
cidentally is a gully-dweller, says the
reason Troutdale keeps whipping
Gresham in the annual tug-of-war is
because Troutdale folks all lean
naturally, a defense against the
wind.
Then there is Dave Angelo, a Cor
bett old-timer who swears that the
wind blew all the m ilk from his
bucket in the walk from the bam to
the house. You have to watch Angelo,
though. The 90-year-old will look you
right in the eye and tell you how he
used to take a flashlight and go
across the road to his barn after dark
to do chores.
“The wind was blowing so bad that
it would turn the beam of that
flashlight downhill to the tavern and
I'd end up following the light to the
tavern,*’ he’ll say.
There is Helen Redden, who
remembers a time back in the 1950s
when she lived in an uninsulated
house in Troutdale. She woke in the
morning to find her goldfish frozen in
the bowl in the living room.
Or there is Cox's favorite tale
about the time he was crossing an
ice-glazed Columbia Street in Trout
dale in a high wind. Cox was wearing
a big baggy coat that caught the wind
like a sail. He was skating full-tilt
toward Portland at 20 miles an hour
when he fell on his back and skidded
halfway under his sister-in-law's
parked car.
And then there was the guy from
Corbett who insists that he was west
bound on Interstate 84 in the gorge
and traveling 55 mph when he was
passed by a paper cup.
Don't let the image-makers do it.
Don't let them take the wind out of
our tales.
Bobcats
The S^niiy Post
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No 3
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Jon 22, 1907
by Adam Kraft
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