10A COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL April 6, 2016
B UDGET
R EPORT
Continued from page 1A
measure the experience level
of its teachers; it also lost almost
$80,000 in transportation funding,
and a change in the estimate of
the number of students that live in
poverty cost another $203,962. The
funding ratio the state uses to cal-
culate the State School Fund also
dropped.
“Phil (Scrima) and I had been
confi dent since the December esti-
mate that everything we were doing
was right in line,” Parent said. "But
then we get an estimate with almost
a $700,000 drop. How do you make
those cuts when you have only 2 ½
months left in the year?"
Parent said that she and Scrima
had worked Monday afternoon to
trim an additional $293,000 from
the budget, leaving the District short
about $600,000 for the remainder
of this year. She said the District
has the money in reserve to cover
the gap, but she likened spending
reserves to using the money in a
savings account to cover regularly
recurring bills.
In fact, a lower-than-expected
carryover into the 2016-17 school
year will create a budget defi cit
then, a defi cit the District has al-
ready begun planning for.
Parent said the District has been
placed on a complete spending
freeze. The District has not hired
additional staff to support the im-
plementation of full-day kindergar-
ten, an addition that may now have
to wait. The administrator position
of former Director of Technology
and Student Achievement Tim Por-
ter will not be fi lled when Porter
leaves to become superintendent
of the South Umpqua district next
year. There will be no new dean
of students at Cottage Grove High
School. Plans to add a teacher at
Bohemia Elementary have been
scrapped, and contributions to
reserve funds dedicated to main-
tenance, athletics fees, textbook
adoptions and funds dedicated to
cover rising PERS retirement costs
have also been lowered.
Other possible cuts for 2016-17
include cutting school days (the
District saves about $80,000 per
cut school day, Parent said), drop-
ping the temperature by two de-
grees at secondary schools, cutting
summer school funding, dropping
a second administrator position at
Bohemia and closing either Dorena
or Latham School (Parent pointed
out, though, that the District re-
ceives more funding for students at
Dorena and London schools due to
their rural location).
Parent pointed out that cutting
school days would have to be ne-
gotiated through the District’s two
teacher associations, adding that
she heard a willingness to cut per-
haps three or four days next year.
Despite the concerns, she said that
budget cuts are nothing new and
that the District will manage.
“We’ll just keep plugging away.
You have a budget worksession
where you’ll be joined by the bud-
get committee in two weeks. We’ll
just keep whittling away at it.”
O BON
Continued from page 1A
are “not just a piece of cloth,”
and were worn close to a soldier’s
heart as he fought for his country.
“When the families see these
fl ags again, they believe it is as if
the soldier’s spirit has fi nally re-
turned,” she said.
Cottage Grove’s Kathy Parsons
said she isn’t sure how her father,
William Arthur Arndt, who en-
tered the Army Air Corps in 1943
and was part of the force that oc-
cupied Japan following the Allied
victory two years later, came to be
in possession of his fl ag. But on
Saturday, Parsons used the Obon
Society exhibit as a way to begin
the process of returning the fl ag to
the soldier who carried it so long
ago, or that soldier’s family.
Upon glimpsing the fl ag, Keiko
Ziak, clearly excited by its appear-
ance at the library, began a quick
assessment of the beautiful mark-
ings it featured, though she added
that others with more scholarship
in the language of the period would
conduct a more thorough analysis
later.
Right away, Ziak was able to dis-
cern the name of the soldier, Mr.
Katsuo Ishida, whom she surmised
worked for the Mitsubishi corpora-
tion, as its name was clearly fea-
tured in one corner of the fl ag. She
explained that the fl ag contained
“so many mixtures” of messages
from well wishers for Mr. Ishida,
with many referring to him using
nicknames and assuring him that
they would take care of the home-
land while he was away at war.
Ziak believed these to be
co-workers of Mr. Ishida.
“They’re all very per-
sonal messages,” Ziak
said, “saying things like,
‘Good luck, buddy,’ and
names that express close
friendship.”
Now, the Obon Society
will begin working in Ja-
pan to fi nd Mr. Ishida or
his family. It’s a process
that Keiko Ziak said has
taken as little as two days and as
long as 18 months.
The Obon Society exhibit will be
in place at the CG Library through-
out April.
Continued from page 1A
fl exibility” due to the placement of built-in cabine-
try.
The school’s offi ce/administrative area is extremely
cramped, the report states, and would need to be relo-
cated, as would the school psychologist’s offi ce. The
same is true for the computer testing room and music
room.
In the report’s cost analysis, McClean estimates a
cost of a little over $2.1 million to acquire properties
that would allow for Harrison’s expansion, about $1.9
million in site improvements, $4.15 million in deferred
maintenance repairs, $1.49 million to reconfi gure the
existing building for accessibility (primarily for the
restrooms), $4.4 million in new construction costs,
$1.2 million in permits, fees and other costs and a $2.3
million contingency, for a total renovation estimate of
$17,636,928.
At just under the $18.921 estimated cost of a new
Harrison facility, renovating the old building isn’t cost-
effective, according to South Lane Superintendent
Krista Parent.
“By the time the report was done and in the hands of
the advisory committee, they had decided it didn’t make
sense,” Parent said. “It’s basically the same amount of
money to build a new school, and the District would
have to purchase properties to do it. And you’d still
have a seven-acre lot that’s too small for a school that
size. We’d end up with a remodeled school that still
has defi ciencies for the same money as it would cost to
build a new one.”
Light the
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COTTAGE GROVE
TAX OFFICE
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Cottage Grove
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STARFIRE Lumber Co.
2795 Mosby Creek Rd.
Cottage Grove
541-942-0168
The Magic
School Bus
A tree grows
in Booklyn
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Chevrolet
Smith Family
Bookstore
2775 Row River Rd, C.G.
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541-343-4717
Where the Wild
Things Are
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Tom Sawyer
Sometimes a
Great Notion
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Restaurant
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Maintenance
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Contracting
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401 E. Main, C.G.
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637 Main St., CG
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