COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL February 10, 2016
New Cascade
owners settle in
BY JON STINNETT
the Cottage Grove Sentinel
A
little over a month has
passed since the transi-
tion, and the new owners of Cas-
cade Home Centers in Cottage
Grove and Creswell say they’re
happy to be continuing with two
already successful businesses.
“This is the fi rst store we’ve
gotten involved with that’s al-
ready up and running. Our plan
for the fi rst quarter with these
new stores was not to come in
and change everything,” said
Ryan Ringer, the fourth genera-
tion of leadership in the Ringer
family, which owns Gold Beach
Lumber Yard stores in Gold
Beach, Port Orford and Brook-
ings. “We wanted to make sure
we understand what Cascade
is; we knew it was a successful
company that is profi table, with
great employees that have been
wonderful through this transi-
tion.”
George Devine and Gene Gil-
lett announced the sale of Cas-
cade at the very end of 2015,
and Dean Kruschke, who serves
as Cascade’s new general man-
ager, has been on hand to help
shepherd the transition for some
time. He has also made appear-
ances at several local events and
City Council meetings.
“I’m interested in what’s
going on in this community
and where I can be involved,”
Krushke said, “whether that’s
through Rotary, Council meet-
ings or in the local schools.”
Please see CASCADE, Page 11A
Changes to education under
ESSA still to be determined
Many parameters of No Child Left Behind successor
to be decided at the state level
BY JON STINNETT
the Cottage Grove Sentinel
S
courtesy photo
Cascade store manager Dean Kruschke, far
left, with Jocelyn Ringer, owner, one-year
old Finn Ringer, owner Ryan Ringer, Beckett
Ringer, 6, and Easton Ringer, 4.
Dept. of Revenue: Watch for
fraudulent activity this tax season
T
ax fi ling season has begun and
the Oregon Department of Rev-
enue wants to remind taxpayers to fi le
early, fi le electronically and immedi-
ately report suspected identity theft.
The Department of Revenue states that
Oregon, other states and the IRS have
seen signifi cant increases in the fi ling
of fraudulent tax returns, often using
stolen identities and fi ctitious W-2s as
a way to try and claim refunds.
“We know tax fraud is on the rise,”
explained Kris Kautz, the department’s
interim director. “Our goal is to avoid
paying on fraudulent claims to protect
Oregon’s tax dollars from misappro-
priation and protect our taxpayers from
fraud.”
How big is the problem?
In 2014, the DOR said it saw 4,700
fake returns trying to claim a total of
nearly $8 million in refunds.
“We stopped all but 159 of those fake
refunds from being issued, preventing
nearly $7.8 million from getting into
the hands of fraudsters,” according to a
Monday press release.
Through mid-November 2015, the
Department said it saw nearly 4,000
fake returns, claiming more than $7
million in refunds.
The Department of Revenue said it
aims to:
Provide easier reporting options
through its website and dedicated iden-
tity theft phone line. Reporting poten-
tially fraudulent activities or fl agging
an account for possible fraud can be
accomplished at its website at www.
oregon.gov/dor by clicking on “Report
Fraud or Identity Theft” under “Get
Help” at the bottom of the homepage or
by calling (503) 947-2000.
Online services use two-factor au-
thentication and require taxpayers to
validate specifi c tax information before
they can access their Revenue Online
accounts.
The Department said it is following
up on suspicious returns.
“If we think someone is using your
personal information to fi le a fraudu-
lent return, we’ll send you a letter ask-
ing you to verify your identity. You can
verify you identity by mail, by phone,
or by taking our new online identity
verifi cation quiz,” the release stated.
The Department said the Oregon
Legislature funded its plan to incor-
porate commercial data analytics and
real-time withholding matching to help
catch more fraudulent tax activity.
“We’re participating in the IRS Secu-
rity Summit with other states, the tax
industry, and the IRS to identify addi-
tional safeguards to protect taxpayers’
federal and state tax accounts from
identity thieves,” it stated.
“These added security measures may
add a bit more time to your fi ling but
it’s to protect you as an individual and
our state’s funds,” Kautz said.
How can taxpayers protect
themselves?
E-fi le as early as possible. The DOR
said that if it receives a real return fi rst,
it can better stop fraudsters from using
taxpayer information. It asks that those
who think or know their identity was
stolen notify them immediately using
the reporting feature on their website or
call (503) 947-2000.
Visit www.oregon.gov/dor to get tax
forms, check the status of your refund,
or make tax payments; or call 1 (800)
356-4222 toll-free from an Oregon
prefi x (English or Spanish); (503) 378-
4988 in Salem and outside Oregon; or
email, questions.dor@oregon.gov. For
TTY (hearing or speech impaired), call
1-800-886-7204.
igned into law by President
Obama on Dec. 10, 2015, the Ev-
ery Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) aims
to replace programs put in place by the
No Child Left Behind Act of 2002, but
as South Lane School District Super-
intendent Krista Parent told the School
Board last week, much remains to be
seen with regard to how the new legis-
lation will affect learning here.
The U.S. Department of Education
touted advances made under No Child
Left Behind on its website, stating that
it “represented a signifi cant step for-
ward for our nation’s children in many
respects, particularly as it shined a light
on where students were making prog-
ress and where they needed additional
support.” However, the DOE continued
that, “over time, NCLB’s prescriptive
requirements became increasingly un-
workable for schools and educators.”
The new education model under
ESSA has been a hot topic among edu-
cators, Parent said, particularly among
superintendents of Oregon school dis-
tricts, who she said are basically wait-
ing for word from the state about the
changes it wishes to make during the
transition from No Child Left Behind
to ESSA.
“We know the basic parameters of
the law and many of the changes, but
so much of this has been pushed back
to the state that we’re kind of in a hold-
ing pattern right now,” Parent said.
The state of Oregon’s website states
that ESSA “gives states fl exibility and
encourages states and schools to inno-
vate, while at the same time holding
us accountable for results,” and Parent
pointed out that the state’s “fl exibility
waiver” expires on Aug. 1, with the
provisions of ESSA set to go into ef-
fect for the 2017-18 school year.
In a briefi ng to explain the parame-
ters of the new law held in late January,
Deputy State Superintendent Salam
Noor said the state hopes to have a
draft of its new plan ready for review
by the Department of Education in Au-
gust, though he added that the DOE
may not be ready to review the docu-
ment by then.
So far, Parent said, the legislation
will require state testing in math, read-
ing or language arts in grades three
through eight with science testing re-
quired at each grade level. States that
choose to do so can utilize a nationally
recognized test instead of a state test.
“It remains to be seen what the state
will do,” Parent said. “They’ve made
a huge investment in the Smarter Bal-
anced assessment, so I don’t see them
walking away from that lightly.”
States will be required to post a 95
percent participation rate in state-level
testing, Parent said, and states can cre-
ate their own policy for those seeking
to opt out of the tests. She called the
standards the tests must follow “vague”
and reiterated that the state of Oregon
has placed “a lot of investment, vetting
and input” into standards of the “Com-
mon Core” curriculum that was meant
to align standards nationwide.
The new legislation does away
with the Adequate Yearly Progress
standards put into place to measure
schools by NCLB, and while its suc-
cessor has yet to be spelled out, Par-
ent said measurements of progress for
Oregon’s schools will have to include
state testing results and progress for
those results, profi ciency for students
learning English as a second language
and graduation rates for high schools.
One new aspect of the legislation, Par-
ent told the School Board, will be the
inclusion of an indicator that measures
student engagement in coursework and
the availability of advanced courses
such as advanced placement classes for
college, etc. The Every Student Suc-
ceeds Act will also provide support and
grant funding for advanced placement
and STEM (science, technology, engi-
neering and mathematics) curriculum,
Parent said. It may also provide grants
for preschool development, which she
pointed out helps to bring preschool
programs under the umbrella of K-12
education.
The new rules under ESSA also do
away with the “highly qualifi ed teach-
er” requirement of No Child Left Be-
hind.
“Previously, we had to write a plan
for every teacher that didn’t meet the
highly qualifi ed standard,” Parent said.
“That standard is now gone.”
The Oregon Department of Educa-
tion posts updates related to ESSA on
its website at http://www.ode.state.
or.us/search/page/?id=3475.
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