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About Wallowa County chieftain. (Enterprise, Wallowa County, Or.) 1943-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 11, 2015)
Wallowa County Chieftain News wallowa.com Enterprise School District budget bouncing back Superintendent shares promising results of audit at recent board meeting A3 E NTERPRISE E DUCATION F OUNDATION PRESENTS YEARLY AWARD TO ESD Courtesy photo A collection of some of the school children present at the Nov. 5 Turkey Bingo fundraising event present the annual $40,000 check to Enterprise School District school board member Kate Fent. The Foundation makes this presentation yearly to help restore programs that may have been cut due to budget shortages. The Turkey Bingo event, sponsored by Community Bank, raised another $2,500 for the foundation. The 18 turkeys that were given away to bingo winners were supplied by The Dollar Stretcher grocery of Enterprise. By Kathleen Ellyn Wallowa County Chieftain The results of 2015 au- dit of the Enterprise School District (ESD) bookkeeping, presented to the school board Nov. 2, showcased how far the district has come since the passage of controversial Measure 5 in 1990. Measure 5 capped proper- ty taxes dedicated to school funding at $15 per $1,000 of real market value per year and gradually decreased to $5 per $1,000 per year. “That money never came back,” said Enterprise Su- perintendent Brad Royse. “We are down one-third in teachers, administration and classi¿ed staff from what we were in the glory days prior to Measure 5.” When he came on board at ESD 13 years ago, Royse inherited not only a shortfall in operating expenses, but the loss of a $4.5 million re- serve fund in place to address funding emergencies. That fund was depleted in four years following the passage of Measure 5. Since then, ESD has re- kindled the reserve fund, depleted it again and added back several times. “There have been so many times when state money has been suddenly reduced after it was allotted in May and we’d already written our budget,” Royse said. “Eight out of 12 years this has hap- pened. We need to have those reserves to ride through these storms.” In addition to the cuts of Measure 5, there have been “tremendous reductions in federal and timber funds, which meant we had to rein in as much as we could to keep our core,” said school board member Nils Christof- fersen. Royse said that for the time being, the ¿nancial news is good. “We’re working toward our board goal of having $1.6 million in reserve, as recom- mended by the auditors,” he said. “We’re not there, but we’ve turned the corner and we can look at adding back programs we’ve had to cut and growing our reserve ac- count.” There is no indication that all of those cuts can be healed, but being in a posi- tion even to consider rein- stating programs or staff was cause for celebration. “Well done,” Christoffers- en said. “We’re getting to a little better position to look at what is in the best interest of the school district. We can ask, ‘What are the real needs today?’” To that end the board will be discussing their options in upcoming meetings. The good news is the re- sult of both better ¿nancial times and district accounting reforms, Royse said. The dis- trict has been working very hard to meet recommenda- tions that auditors make. “When I came on, notes from auditors ran to three pages,” Royse said. “There were bookkeeping violations November 11, 2015 20th Healthy Futures dinner set for Saturday By Steve Tool MORE INFORMATION Wallowa County Chieftain Kathleen Ellyn/Chieftain Enterprise School District Superintendent and Elementary School Principal Brad Royse. run a pretty tight ship.” The district is by no means free of ¿nancial constraints or emergencies. An example of an emer- gency is the juggling Royse has done to make sure the more than 60 special-needs students in the district are ad- equately served. “We were not able to hire both a full-time teacher and a full-time aide,” he said. “So, four part-time aides were hired and a major shift in duty assignments was made.” Even so, Royse said, the district was spending money that was not budgeted. “It’s all coming out of the instruction budget,” he said. “I usually have some leeway there, but I doubt we’ll have enough this year. I’m hoping for some federal money out of Title One funds, but we won’t know until after Jan- uary if we get that. I’m not highly hopeful that we’ll get Title One funds, but if I do, I’ll funnel it to those aides.” where money had been spent out of the wrong account or a separate account had not been made and there were recommendations about how much carry-over cash Àow we should have and advice on restructuring funds al- ready set up.” Now, Royse said, their docket was the cleanest he had seen since coming to the district, and auditors’ notes amounted to just a few lines of suggestions and no viola- tions. The district also received $106,000 in timber money for 2014-’15 after receiving no timber funding the previ- ous year. An upturn in the state economy has led to a slight increase in ¿nancial support for school districts as well. “We are getting more money per student,” Royse said. Also contributing to the overall turnaround is an in- crease in student enrollment and, as Royse noted: “We’ve Wallowa Valley Health Care Foundation http://www.wvhcf.org/ The Wallowa Valley Health Care Foundation is celebrat- ing its 20th Healthy Futures Dinner Auction on Saturday at Cloverleaf Hall, 668 NW 1st St., in Enterprise. The pro- ceeds from the popular dinner auction are used to buy much needed equipment for Wal- lowa Memorial Hospital. Foundation director Stacy Green said this year’s event features a catered dinner, no- host bar and both live and si- lent auctions. “As far as I’m aware, this was the ¿rst event of its kind in the county,” Green said. “Now there’s a million of them. In 1996, the ¿rst year, it raised over $19,000, which is quite a bit.” Green said the 2014 auc- tion grossed $71,000, but the challenges of fundraising ac- cumulate as competition with other fundraising dinners in- creases. The major purpose for the auction proceeds this year is to purchase a state-of-the-art bone-density system that is essential for diagnosing oste- oporosis in both women and men and costs over $50,000. Past foundation purchases of equipment for the hospital in- clude an advanced life-support ambulance and a digital mam- mography machine. Winding Waters River Expeditions http://windingwatersraft- ing.com/ Wildhorse Resort http://www.wildhorsere- sort.com/ OK Theatre http://theoldok.com/ Saturday’s cocktail and so- cial hour begins at 5 p.m., as does the silent auction, with the catered dinner and the live entertainment starting at 6:30 p.m. and the live auction at 7:30 p.m. Matt Kurtz will em- cee the event and Jake Muss- er will provide auctioneering services. Carolyn Lochert and Gail Swart will provide enter- tainment. The auction is offering a number of items up for live and silent bid, including: Wildhorse Resort weekend golf getaway, a half-day guid- ed ¿shing trip from Winding Waters River Expeditions and a one-year pass for two to OK Theatre concerts. As of the Monday after- noon, tickets were still avail- able at a price of $60. Checks should be made out to WVH- CF and either dropped off at the Wallowa Memorial Hos- pital front desk, or slid under- neath the WVHCF door at the hospital. Now Accepting New Patients! Call Today for An Appointment 541.426.7900 Thank You Dr. Kirsten Caine Dr. Emily Sheahan Nurse Practitioner Traci Frye The family of Janet (Scottie) Doyle wishes to thank you for your expressions of care and love during her amazing life and passing. Special thanks to Dr. Boyd, EMS, and Wallowa Memorial Hospital. We are blessed by your kindness and prayers! 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