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About Spilyay tymoo. (Warm Springs, Or.) 1976-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 27, 2007)
SCA OrColl E 75 i . S68 v. 32 no. 20 I September 27, 2007 Spilyay Tym C C oyote News, est. 1976 September 27 , 2 0 0 7 P.O.Box 870 , OR 97761 Acquisition Dept./Serials Knight Library 1299 University of Oregon Eugene OR 97403-1205 Voi. 32, No. 2 0 ECRWSS rostal Patron U.S. Postage PRSRTSTD Warm Springs, OR 97761 50 cents Council to weigh options for mill (Subm itted by the office, o f the the Secretary-Treasurer.) , Recent concerns over the perfor m ance o f W arm Springs Forest Products Industries prompted Tribal Council to meet in executive session to discuss the mill and investigate its prospects. The September 13 ses sion in Lincoln City resulted in a di rective to Secretary-Treasurer Jody Calica to assess the mill’s board, man agement, and operating results over the past two years. The purpose of the assessment is to see what can be done to pre serve the mill’s viability as à revenue source for the tribes. Warm Springs Forest Products Industries (WSFPI) losses have av eraged $1.4 million per year since 2000, with just one profitable year in that period, when lumber prices hit a cyclical high during the hous ing boom. Council is concerned about the ability of the mill’s board and management to develop and implement strategic business options. B y Leslie M itts Spilyay Tymoo u a v e M CM echan/Spilyay Tough competitive environ ment WSFPI benefits from the steady log supply available from reserva tion tiirtbet, but several other fac tors create a very tough financial en vironment for the enterprise.; Past Brian Suppah, mill tipple operator, is one of 117 W SFPI employees. harvesting practices have led to lpwer current annual levels. Declining log sizes and long-term trends in the North American forest products industry all contribute to the difficulties^/'. Declining housing starts, mortgage industry woes, and increasing interna- tional competition have sen£typercu&- sions throughout the timber industry, resulting in significantlyfower prices bn the lumber markets. Dozens of mill closures have occurred throughout the Northwest over the past ten years, See WSFPI on 11 Tribal budget subject of upcoming gatherings B y Dave McMechan Spilyay Tymoo The proposed tribal general fund budget was posted earlier this month. There are five meetings at: various lo cations scheduled for tribal member discussion of'the proposed budget.' The 2008 proposed budget is based on the 2007 approved budget. The pro posed budget for next year projects increases of $1.173 million for opera tion, community assistance, land pur chases, capital projects and per capita. There alsods a projected increase in revenue of $166,000, according to the budget statëmeqtby secretary-treasurer Jody Ctiica-With decreases in program operations o f approximately $460,000,. there is a deficit in the posted budget of $547,437, which must be eliminated prior to final adoption later this year. According to the budget message of the secretary-treasurer: “When the Tribal Council takes ac tion to finalize the 2008 tribal budget, total proposed expenditures will not be increased beyond the (pasted) proposal. If no new revenues are made available in 2008, proposed spending requests will have to be reduced below current budget levels to result in a balanced or surplus, budget. As reported to the m em bership over the. past several years,” the statement says' “tribal gov ernment will continue to try and balance the essential community needs with the Current and forecasted revenue'base.” .- The 2008 proposed budget is posted artiund the community^, such as the administration building, and the post office. Tribal members wifi also receive the proposal in the mail. The upcoming meetings are sched uled as followed, with the meetings beginning at 7 p.m., dinner served at 6: Agency District: Monday, Oct. 1 at the Agency Lpnghopse. Seekseequa District: Tuesday, Oct. 2 at the Seëkseeqüa Fire Hall. Simnasho District: Wednesday, Oct. 3 at the Simnasho Longhouse. Sidwalter community: Thursday, Oct. 4 at Corey Clements residence. General Council; Tuesday, Oct, 9 at the Agency Longhouse. Warm Springs library planning to expand services B y L eslie M itts Spilyay Tymoo The local library may be a work in progress, but plans for the future are quickly expanding. > Julie Quaid works as the librar ian for the library located in the Fam ily Resource Center. • Althea Henry works as the library aide. Specifically, the library carries, books relating to children’s literature, Native American culture and history, and K-12 education (materials like reference books and study guides). Currently library staff members are working to catalog 700 new books in preparation for a' much larger project—linking the library with Jefferson County Public library in M adras and the D eschutes County Public library in Bend. By August 2008, Quaid said, they hope to have the books cataloged using the same system as the other two libraries. That will enable them to borrow books from both o f those libraries with a courier service, as well as lend books from the local library to oth ers. A t that point, the library will ¡also Positive trends reported at schools Leslie M itts/Spilyay Dallas Camas, 21, said he goes to the library about twice a week. have to begin using a library card sys tem-—currently they just have a lend- ingpolicy for the general public. N o matter the system, Quaid said, returning the books is important to the success of the library. “We.have to have people return the books after they check them out,” Quaid saicl In fact, she added, if anyone has checked out à book and not returned it, staff members would appreciate the book being brought back to the library. While there are a few regular patrons at thè library, many also use the library for its computer access, Quaid added. This year they also plan to upgrade the computer systems. An ILMS enhancem ent grant helps fund the library, paired with two grants through the Jefferson County Public Library. However, Quaid said, they also have private fionors in places as far away as New York and Connecti cut. In fact, the library was founded on donations alone. “A lot of our collection is built on donations,” Quaid explained. Other libraries, literary foundations and private donors often donate books that are used or have been used in the library. “We get people donating from all over,” Quaid said. Currently they’re working to make sure the collection is current— removing any books older than five years old. The library moved to the Family Resource Center in 2002 when the building was remodeled. Before that, it was located in the Com munity Center, but was not staffed and books were not returned frequently. See LIBRARY on 10 New data is demonstrating & posi tive trend in the 509-J school district. Officials with the school district said the data— regarding item s such as grade-point averages, absenteeism and suspensions—is the best it’s been in years. Within the district, Warm Springs El ementary School has made several note worthy improvements, according to the data. School principal Dawn Smith said the teachers and staff have been work ing for years in various areas to im prove student achievement. One aspect, she said, involves align ing the entire curriculum with the stan dards of the state of Oregon while also developing year-long teaching plans at each grade level “that guide instructions and help ensure that everyone teaches everything that needs to be taught.” In addition, Smith said, they’ve also worked to select core subject programs that both support and enhance the state standards» “The programs that we have in'place1 also allow for differentiated instruc tions, meaning that students may move through most of our programs at their own pace,” Smith explained-—allowing' students to move quickly through con cepts and skills they have already mas tered while having time to review and practice other that they may find chal lenging Sm ith said they’ve also imple-f mented instructional strategies that help students develop language skills necessary to fully understand w hat is being taught. “It’s not enough to just teach read|; ing or teach math or social studies or science,” Smith said. “You have to make sure kids clearly understand and can apply what they’re learning.” At Warm Springs Elementary, Smith said, they also have high expectations for student behavior and strive to cre-^ ate a strong community within the schooL Another aspect they’ve worked to improve, Smith said, involves develop ing a common language o f achieve m ent • “Every student knows they may b e; asked at any time what spelling level they are on,” she said. “They know they may be asked how many acceler-: ated math objectives they have passed, how many words they read on their hot or cold timings that day, or what per centages o f questions they just passed on th eir co m prehensio n reading quiz.” . According to Smith, “There is a con tinual flowing o f ‘achievement’ speak that everyone in the school is involved in daily and that sets the tone o f the school. We are all about learning and getting more proficient at everything we do and everyone knows it.” A large part of their ongoing suc cess at Warm Springs Elementary is due to parent involvement as well, Smith said. “We have tremendous parent sup port and we are grateful daily for it,” she said» “Our parents understand and support what we are doing and hold high expectations for their children as welL” See SCHOOLS on 11
