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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, APRIL 4, 2016
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Charter school
claims district
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barriers’
By HILLARY BORRUD
Capital Bureau
By LYRA FONTAINE
EO Media Group
CANNON BEACH —
Cannon Beach Academy rep-
resentatives said they were
“extremely disappointed” by
the Seaside School District’s
decision to withdraw approval
for the charter school’s open-
ing this fall.
They say the district erected
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riers” to the academy’s opera-
tion and should reconsider the
decision.
Eight academy board
members objected in a letter
received by the school district
last week. The school district
withdrew approval last month
based on the academy’s fail-
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ment and English as a Second
Language requirements agreed
upon in October.
The conditions, which
were to be met by March,
were intended to ensure that
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cially, structurally and aca-
demically ready” to open in
the fall.
While
acknowledging
these conditions had not been
met, academy board mem-
bers asked the school district
to “accept a certain level of
uncertainty” relating to enroll-
ment and staff.
The academy board offered
to meet with the district to “fur-
ther discuss how we can move
forward to commence Cannon
Beach operations for the 2016-
17 school year.”
The public charter school is
prepared to appeal the district’s
decision and seek sponsorship
by the Oregon State Board of
Education if an agreement is
not reached by April 11, board
members wrote.
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In 2013, community resi-
dents sought to bring a charter
school to Cannon Beach, with
the goal of hosting kindergart-
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The school district denied
the academy’s proposal several
times, citing the lack of an ade-
quate location and not enough
startup funds.
In October, the Seaside
School District board of direc-
Oil group drops bid
to repeal fuel standard
EO Media Group
David Vonada, of Tolovana Architects, presents the tenta-
tive site plan of the Cannon Beach Academy’s temporary
location, 171 Sunset Blvd., to the planning commission
in 2015.
tors unanimously approved a
three-year contract with Can-
non Beach Academy. Under
the conditions, the charter
school would serve at least 44
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grades could be added over
time.
The charter school planned
to open in fall at a temporary
location at 171 Sunset Blvd.,
in a space that once housed the
Cannon Beach Athletic Club.
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SALEM — An oil
industry group announced
Thursday it will abandon a
bid to get voters to weaken
or repeal Oregon’s low-car-
bon fuel standard.
The Oregon Fuels Asso-
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tiatives targeting the law
for the November bal-
lot, but Paul Romain, the
group’s executive director,
said it would have been dif-
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strategy.
“The problem with any
initiative is you’re ask-
ing people to ... vote ‘yes,’
to vote ‘no,’” Romain
said. “It’s a very confusing
message.”
The Oregon Fuels
Association
represents
gas stations and other fuel
distributors.
Instead of a ballot initia-
tive, Romain said the fuel
industry will push lawmak-
ers to make a 2017 trans-
portation funding plan con-
tingent upon changes or
a repeal of the fuel stan-
dard. That’s what Repub-
licans did last year, and
they could do so again next
year because the Legisla-
ture can only raise the state
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supermajority.
“We just felt the stronger
position we had was saying,
‘OK, you want money for a
transportation package, then
work with us,’” Romain
said.
A repeal of the low-car-
bon fuel standard was part
of a transportation fund-
ing plan negotiated last year
by Gov. Kate Brown and a
bipartisan group of lawmak-
ers that included state Sen.
Betsy Johnson, D-Scap-
poose. That deal died, how-
ever, after the state Depart-
ment of Transportation
The academy also objected
to the school district’s condi-
tion of 22 students enrolled in
a district kindergarten class.
Superintendent
Doug
Dougherty and Superinten-
dent-elect Sheila Roley said
without enough students, the
district would be unable to
make necessary adjustments
in programs, class size and
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The academy also lacked
a state-approved English lan-
guage learners program by
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In their letter, the academy proposing an outdated pro-
board said they did not view gram, Dougherty and Roley
the district’s conditions as rea- wrote.
According to academy
sonable or appropriate when
adopted. Board members were members, the academy had
dismayed the district did not developed a program using
include the academy in review- information from the Oregon
ing and addressing the condi- Department of Education that
they “reasonably believed” to
tions before board approval.
However, the academy be state-approved, board mem-
trusted the school district bers wrote. The error is “imma-
“would be reasonable” in con- terial” and “easily corrected.”
Academy board members
sidering the conditions.
The academy stated the said the district’s decision was
conditions were imposed to “neither reasonable or lawful.”
Despite the March decision
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to revoke approval, Dougherty
charter school.
“We trust we are incorrect and Roley stated that the dis-
in drawing this conclusion,” trict remained committed to
seeing the charter school up
board members wrote.
One condition required the and running and that Cannon
school have “all the money Beach Academy could begin
they need for the 2016-17 operating in fall 2017, if it
school year” in the bank, as meets the conditions.
well as a 10-percent contin-
gency, amounting to about
$450,000.
The academy had $145,798
CON CEAL
by March 1, falling more than
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$300,000 short.
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Academy board members
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of the charter school.”
revealed the plan would not
achieve the promised reduc-
tions in greenhouse gas emis-
sions, which was a sticking
point for environmentalists.
10 percent reduction
The fuel standard is sup-
posed to reduce carbon emis-
sions from transportation by 10
percent over a decade through
a combination of cleaner biofu-
els blended into gas and diesel
and a carbon credit exchange
to reward owners of electric
charging stations and other
alternative fuel infrastructure.
Lawmakers passed a bill last
year to make the system per-
manent, and it took effect in
January.
Even before the law, Ore-
gon already required a 10 per-
cent ethanol blend in gasoline
and a 5 percent biodiesel blend
in diesel.
“So far dozens of businesses,
from a truck stop in Eugene to
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fumes, have signed up to gen-
erate credits from the sale of
clean, renewable fuels,” Jessica
Moskovitz, communications
director for the Oregon Envi-
ronmental Council, wrote in an
email. “Oregonians don’t need
to choose between clean air and
good roads, we need both.”
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Even without the ballot ini-
tiatives, the low-carbon fuel
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lenges. Although the standard
took effect in January, the Ore-
gon Environmental Commis-
sion voted in December to
delay enforcement of the law
until 2018. Commissioners said
they wanted frequent updates
on the supply and cost of alter-
native fuels and carbon credits.
The Department of Envi-
ronmental Quality, which
administers the program, also
changed one of its carbon emis-
sions measurements last year to
a value favored by the corn eth-
anol industry. The industry had
threatened to join oil compa-
nies in attacking the law if the
state did not abandon a calcula-
tion that attributed a greater car-
bon impact to corn ethanol.
Romain said the Depart-
ment of Environmental Quality
is once again changing aspects
of the fuel standard, after the
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agency some of the numbers
were incorrect. Agency staff
could not be reached for com-
ment Thursday afternoon.
“The bottom line, the pro-
gram isn’t working,” Romain
said. “And you know, it may
collapse of its own weight.”
Moskovitz dismissed the
idea that the program might
be in trouble. “The program is
working as it should by being
updated as needed,” Moskov-
itz wrote.
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Meanwhile, the state is
offering millions of dollars
in incentives to governments
and businesses that install
fueling infrastructure or pur-
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run on compressed natural
gas, propane or other alterna-
tive fuels. Thursday was the
deadline for businesses and
governments to apply for $3
million in state tax credits for
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the Department of Energy is
also offering $8 million in tax
credits for charging stations,
fuel compression and storage
facilities and other transporta-
tion projects through Septem-
ber, according to agency press
releases.
The Capital Bureau is a col-
laboration between EO Media
Group and Pamplin Media
Group.
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