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About Cottage Grove sentinel. (Cottage Grove, Or.) 1909-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 12, 2015)
COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL August 12, 2015 11A S CHOOL Continued from page 1A up positions this year, with three new kindergarten teach- ers brought on to teach a full day making up many of the new hires. Nice said Harrison is “overfl owing” and has been forced to turn away students recently. Harrison also hopes to cultivate the idea of “par- ents as partners,” Nice said. Dorena Principal Kim Scrima explained that the rural school has lost 50 percent of its teach- ers, and new hires will make for a new environment there. She said the school hopes to branch out into the nearby community more. Dorena is the only school that can offer free breakfast, lunch and a snack, Scrima said. Lincoln Middle School likes to focus on achievement and relationships, Principal Jeremy Smith said. Relationships can be fostered by greater commu- nication with parents, he said, including social media outreach. The school has also recently gone to a “hybrid block” sched- ule which doubles the minutes of math instruction time for each of its students. At Kennedy High School, Principal Mike Ingman said he’s excited about a push toward increased engagement with the broader community and outreach in the form of guest speakers and other presenta- tions. The school also plans to interact with and update parents more frequently on their kids’ progress. Plans for more visits to college campuses are also in the works. Principal Anne Fisk is in her second year at Latham, which boasts strong traditions such as a Grandparents Day, lapathon and apple press. The school works to create S.O.A.R-ing Ea- gles that can Show respect, take Ownership of their actions, Act responsibly and Reach for their personal best, Fisk said. She said she’s proud that Latham has a very active parent club. In contrast to many other schools, London Principal Bill Bechen said his school is not ex- pecting any new hires this fall. The school hopes to hear soon if it was awarded a grant for a half-time P.E. teacher. A school- wide reading project involving two books that all students read within a month is also in the works. Cottage Grove High School has experienced a lot of recent successes, said Principal Iton Udosenata, and the school is un- dergoing a lot of transitions. He said CGHS is working to ease the transition by picturing the school year as a road map that has its milestones but also its pit stops and fl at tires. The high school is adding more advanced placement classes this year and is continuing efforts to combat its chronic absentee rate. New Bohemia Elementary Principal Heather Bridgens talk- ed about the school’s complete lack of space, in addition to its nine new hires. Its computer lab has been disassembled and will go mobile to allow space for an all-day kindergarten classroom, and A Primary Connection, the program which assists parents with various needs, is moving to the nearby Lane Commu- nity College campus in Cottage Grove. Bohemia hopes to foster regular attendance and consis- tency in discipline, Bridgens said. bond’s duration, the lower the rate residents will pay to fund the bond. (For a fi ve-year bond, for example, the rate would be about $.30 per $1000 of as- sessed property value; a 10-year bond would cost taxpayers $.15 per $1000). The committee is exploring the idea of using the bond to purchase the equipment all at once, Wooten said, reasoning that the cost of the equipment goes up each year. Wooten said the District could end up paying about 25 percent more by spac- ing out the purchase of each piece of apparatus. That is, of course, if local vot- ers approve the bond, and the photo by Jon Stinnett Dorena Principal Kim Scrima talks about the upcoming school year with South Lane School District Board President Tammy Hodgkinson. B OND Continued from page 3A the equipment it needs to keep people safe.” South Lane Fire’s bond com- mittee is exploring the option of seeking a bond for fi ve, six or 10 years, with a total of about $2.5 million to purchase the equip- ment. The longer the potential time is short to decide whether to pursue the bond in 2015 or wait until next year. A Sept. 3 deadline must be met for the bond to be written, for pub- lic comment on the bond to be taken and paperwork fi led, and Wooten said he’s not sure if that is enough time to inform voters on the need for the new equip- ment. Voters recently approved a lo- cal option levy to fund fi re and life safety operations, a levy that will be up for a renewal in 2016. This would seem to complicate the potential pursuit of a bond to purchase equipment, and a May, 2016 bond measure may be hampered by low voter turnout. “I believe the public should decide whether it’s important enough to have a modernized fl eet,” Wooten said. The bond committee is sched- uled to meet again on Aug. 20 to continue discussing a potential bond. T RAIL Follow The LEADER Join the crowd by “Liking” the Cottage Grove Sentinel on Facebook and following us on Twitter Stay on top of local happenings and share your social interest views! Cottage Grove Sentinel 116 N. 6th St., PO Box 35, Cottage Grove, OR 97424 | 541-942-3325 | www.cgsentinel.com Continued from page 1A “It’s a question of what is most effective and effi cient,” Aleman said. “To have two enti- ties doing the same thing, with the City’s track record for main- tenance, doesn’t make a lot of sense. So we start to think about ‘how can this operation become more effi cient?’” The current maintenance agreement spans fi ve years, and it is facilitated by the BLM’s ability to transfer federal fund- ing to the City to cover the main- tenance costs, which amount to about $20,000 annually. A new agreement must be de- veloped if the partnership is to continue, and Meyers said via an entry in the Friday Update publication that the City does hope “to obtain a longer-term agreement with the BLM for the maintenance of the entire trail.” “City Staff discussed the pos- sibility of having a fi ve to 10- year cooperative management agreement tied to an assistance agreement that would allocate funding for the period encom- passed by the management agreement,” he wrote. “Having a long-term cooperative manage- ment agreement may enable the City to apply for certain grant funds to improve and repave the upper ten miles of the trail.” These repairs, Meyers said, are sorely needed, as the trail’s surface has begun to crack and S o me So e time t i me ti m e s, mes, s p a am m pe peri r ing ri ng i s no n t en enou ough ou u gh t o ke keep ep y ou our r fe f eet e et e h al he alth th hy. y I f you yo o u ar a e a se s e ni nior or o r ha h ve v f ee eet t th that at r eq equi uire ui re s pe p ci cial a c ar al are, e e, y yo o u’ u r re e n ot t a lo o ne ne.. Ou O u r serv Our se e rvic rv v ic c es a re e s pe p ci c al ally ly d es esig ig gne e d fo for r th thos o e os wh who h o ha ave v e t he h se a nd o th t er e m ed edic i al ic a l c on ondi d iti di ti i ons: on n s: s Sentinel fi le photo The Row River Trail is a 15.6-mile haven for local cy- clists and visitors. show evidence of disturbance by tree roots in many places. Portions of the sides of the trail’s surface have also begun to slough off. “This trail needs work,” Mey- ers said. “We’ve already done most of the resurfacing on our portion because of the Dorena hydroelectric project.” The City can’t afford to resur- face the entire trail, and by all accounts, the BLM can’t either. To complicate matters, the BLM can’t apply directly for grant funding to fi nance the repairs. “Resurfacing the trail is no little ticket item,” Aleman said. “We’ll need to be creative to- gether to see how we can ac- complish that goal. Perhaps it can be done in phases. It’s a matter of looking for funding and working with our partners on a deliberate front.” Regardless of how the resur- facing is paid for, Meyers said making it happen is a must. “The trail is really, really im- portant for us,” he said. “We’re constantly seeing people use it, and it’s a huge economic engine for us. It’s part of the designat- ed Scenic Bikeway. It needs to be nice, because if it isn’t, the word will get out. If the trail is great for three miles, then goes to crap, it still refl ects poorly on us.” Regardless of how the trail gets resurfaced, Aleman said the BLM is pleased with the work the City has done thus far. “I’d like to laud the efforts of the City of Cottage Grove,” she said. “They’ve been responsive and wonderful to work with. It’s been a good partnership for all involved.” SOUTH LANE COUNTY FIRE & RESCUE SAVE MONEY. 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