4J MULLS
CUTS, EQUITY,
CITY TAX
The Eugene 4J School District at a Jan.
12 board meeting increased its estimate of
budget cuts, backed away from closing a
diverse neighborhood school and supported
a city effort to help fund local schools.
After hearing new numbers from
Governor-elect John Kitzhaber, 4J
Superintendent George Russell revised his
$22 million estimate of cuts to $26 million.
“The $26 million is a more realistic target,”
Russell said.
At the meeting a majority of school board
members and district staff appeared to
oppose closing Adams elementary, one of
the brownest and poorest schools in the
district, to give the building to the
Charlemagne French immersion elementary,
one of the whitest and richest schools in the
district.
“I wouldn’t support closing Adams,” said
board member Anne Marie Levis, a French
immersion parent.
“I still do recommend moving the
Charlemagne school to the Parker site,”
Russell said.
But a board majority opposed officially
taking the option of closing Adams off the
table, forcing Adams parents to go to more
late night meetings to defend their school.
Fox Hollow parents apparently won’t
have to plea for their school. The School
Board has not applied the same closure tests
and criteria to Fox Hollow as it has applied
to neighborhood schools. Some critics have
long charged that targeting poorer and
browner neighborhood schools for budget
cut closures while exempting richer and
whiter alternative schools is discrimination.
The board now appears to be targeting
the Parker neighborhood school to make
room for the French alternative school. Two
board members suggested a less disruptive
and costly option of not closing a
neighborhood school for the French school
pending a proposed reevaluation of 4J
alternative schools next year.
But other board members did not voice
support for officially adding that option. “I
guess that we are not going to do that,”
Board Chairman Craig Smith said.
Moving Fox Hollow to Parker may
apparently save almost no money, as it
would require a new large parking lot and
drop-off area because almost all the French
school parents drive their kids to school,
according to 4J staff.
But school administrators said they
support closing neighborhood schools even
if no money is saved, arguing that coping
with staffing cuts is easier on kids and
administrators in a larger school. Even if
closing smaller schools saves no money, “it
would still be a wise idea,” said Peter
Tromba, head of a 4J administrators group.
District staff argued for a May school
construction bond measure of about $130
million. They argued the timing would:
leverage $15 million in federal construction
funding; allow the district to claim it wasn’t
raising taxes because of an expiring previous
school construction levy; and prevent layoffs
of 4J construction staff.
But if the two measures divided and
confused voters, a May bond vote to build
new schools could cause the district to lose
$10 million dollars or more in operating
funding from a proposed city tax on the May
ANGELA DAVIS AT
WOMEN OF COLOR CONFAB
Angela Davis, Yellow Rage and Favianna Rodriguez are keynote speakers at the
eighth annual Women of Color Conference from 8 am to 6 pm Friday and Saturday, Jan.
21-22, in Gerlinger Lounge and the LLC Performance Hall at UO. The event is free and
open to the public.
The theme of the conference, sponsored by the ASUO Women’s Center, is “Our New
Year’s Resolution: Ending Oppression Through Expression!”
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ballot to prevent mass teacher layoffs,
packed classrooms and four-day school
weeks.
If both measures are on the ballot, “what
would that mean for the chances for either or
both passing?” Russell wondered.
Timing the school construction measure
with the district’s budget cuts could also
complicate the bond measure’s passage.
“Why are we asking for money to build
schools when we are closing schools?”
asked Pamela Gutierrez, a Crest Elementary
parent.
Two board members and Russell spoke
favorably of the city tax effort for schools.
Russell said he was “encouraged” that
the Eugene City Council voted unanimously
last week to study a city income tax to help
fund the school district. “I think they need to
be thinking about something that would be
able to get $10 million for this district,”
Russell said.
“I think that it’s important that we’re
open to this conversation they’re having at
the city,” board member Jennifer Geller said.
Board chairman Smith said of the city tax
effort for schools, “I’m hopeful that
something will come of it.” — Alan Pittman
CHROMIUM-6
GETS TESTED
LOCALLY
Chromium-6, aka hexavalent chromium
— it’s the nasty cancer-causing stuff that
led to a $333 million lawsuit against
Pacific Gas and Electric in California for
contaminating a town’s drinking water and
to the award-winning film Erin Brockovich.
After the advocacy organization
Environmental
Working
Group’s
December report showing that hexavalent
chromium is in the water of 31 of 35 U.S.
cities, including Bend, the carcinogen
became an issue again.
On Jan. 15 the Environmental Protection
Agency recommended that utilities
nationwide test drinking water for
hexavalent chromium.
Karl Morgenstern, EWEB’s drinking
water source protection coordinator, says,
“We test for total chromium, which includes
chromium-6, and have not had any detections
above lab reporting limits in raw water.”
He adds, “We have had a few detections
in some tributaries, Camp and Cedar Creeks,
but only 5 to 10 percent of the time.”
The utility says it has never detected
chromium in its finished water or in the
distribution system.
EWEB begins enhanced monitoring for
the contaminant this week and will send
samples to a lab in California capable of
detecting minute levels of chromium.
Chromium-6 has not been a regulated
contaminant, but the EPA says, that “the
science behind chromium-6 is evolving,”
and the agency is reviewing its health
effects.
The EPA has previously found hexavalent
chromium “likely to be carcinogenic to
humans.” Previous studies have shown
inhaling it causes lung cancer. In 2009,
National Toxicology Program scientists
reported that their two-year study on
drinking water “clearly demonstrates” that
the contaminant causes cancer. Rodents in
the study developed malignant tumors in
their small intestines and mouths from
drinking water containing several different
amounts of hexavalent chromium.
In Coos County, a controversial chromite
mine under construction has caused fears
that the contaminant could be released into
the groundwater.
Although chromium occurs naturally in
the earth, it can also get into water through
chlorine, a common disinfectant in Oregon
water systems, which can chemically
transform the benign trivalent chromium
into the carcinogenic chromium-6.
— Camilla Mortensen
“We hope to provide a safe, welcoming space for women and allies who historically
have been marginalized to express their voices, experiences, and/or artistic talents,” reads
a statement from the organizers. “Participants will attend workshops ranging from
meditation to soul collage making to mural art, giving them the tools necessary to
continue their healing and expression as resolutions throughout the year. The emphasis of
this conference is healing and educating around social and political inequalities of women
and on establishing ways to continue advocacy and progress through workshops, guided
facilitations, lectures and film screenings.”
Angela Davis is perhaps best known for her role in the Black Panthers in the 1960s,
being on the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted List and founding Critical Resistance, an organization
working to abolish the prison-industrial complex.
Today she is a political educator who incorporates feminism, African-American
studies, critical theory, Marxism, prisoner rights and social consciousness into her
publications and lectures. She will speak at 7 pm Saturday, Jan. 22, in Columbia 150.
Doors open at 6 pm and her talk will be free for conference participants. For others,
admission is $5 for students, $7 general.
Davis will also speak at 7:30 pm Friday, Jan. 21, at Willamette University’s Smith
Auditorium in Salem. See http://wkly.ws/10r for a complete two-week list of WU events
surrounding MLK Day.
Yellow rage is a spoken poetry duo “pulling powerful words from their political
ideologies, person life philosophies and unique experiences as Asian-American women.”
Favianna Rodriguez is an artist-entrepreneur who has helped foster a resurgence in
political arts both locally and internationally. Named by UTNE Reader as a “leading
visionary artist and change maker,” Rodriguez is known for her cultural media projects
dealing with social issues such as war, immigration and globalization as well as for her
leadership in establishing innovative institutions.
For more information, visit http://pages.uoregon.edu/women or email Andrea
Valderrama at diversitywc@gmail.com
EUGENE WEEKLY
JANUARY 20, 2011 7