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About Cottage Grove sentinel. (Cottage Grove, Or.) 1909-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 6, 2017)
COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL DECEMBER 6, 2017 11A Board to decide if Latham Elementary closes its doors Decision may be as soon as January By Caitlyn May cmay@cgsentinel.com The South Lane School board held its monthly meeting on Mon- day and night and invited the elephant into the room: Would it close Latham Elementary School? The board agreed that more information was needed before it made its decision but leaned heavily on discussion of the building’s failing infrastructure, smaller class sizes and the coming of the new Harrison Elementary School next fall as well as a possible savings of over $200,000 a year if the school closed its doors. “I believe at some point, Latham won’t continue to operate,” board member Jerry Settelmeyer said. “In some respects, you might say it’s a mercy to say it’s over,” he said, noting the mounting main- tenance issues and his belief that the conversation on what to do with the school should have come a year ago. Vision 2037 Vision Keepers Committee Members Needed Th e Vision Keeper Committee welcomes applications from interested persons who would like to serve a two year term as an “at-large” member of the committee (2 positions available). Applicants will be interviewed and then confi rmed by the Cottage Grove City Council. Th e role of the Vision Keepers is to monitor progress of the Cottage Grove 2037 Vision Action Plan, encourage implementation of actions, provide technical assistance or support where appropriate, produce annual progress reports, and recommend minor modifi cations to the plan as necessary. Th e Vision Keepers will hold quarterly team progress meetings, and will develop annual awards to recognize individuals or organizations for exceptional service toward promoting achievement of the Cottage Grove 2037 Action Plan. Applications are available at City Hall and at the Cottage Grove Public Library, and should be returned by Friday December 22, 2017, at 5:00 PM to: Teresa Cowan, City of Cottage Grove Community Coordinator, 400 Main Street, Cottage Grove, Oregon 97424, Email: volunteers@cottagegrove.org, Phone: 541-942-1185. Latham currently has 94 students enrolled in classes. That num- ber is down from 111 from the same time last year. Whether that trend will continue is unknown but Superintendent Krista Parent said elementary numbers across the board are down and there was discussion that the neighborhood that feeds Latham’s student body numbers is aging out. If Latham were to be closed, the district would save $187,397 in staffi ng costs. That includes the entire $84,463 principal salary and pieces of other costs that include offi cer manager time (an approx- imate $18,373 savings), a handful of the nine food service hours ($14,085 in savings) and $70,000 of the $401,234 spent yearly on teachers. “Some of those six teachers at Latham would follow the kids. Wherever the kids went, the teachers would follow,” Parent said in explaining the $70,000 savings rather than the entire $401,234. A total of $46,429.87 could be saved in electricity, utilizes, per- mits and upkeep if Latham closed and saved the district $2,900 in garbage removal, $7,662 in electricity and a little over $2,000 in custodial supplies. Financial savings aside, the board discussed the other benefi ts Latham provided students, including a small school option. Board member Taylor Wilhour, who has children in the school, said it was a viable concern for parents and fellow member Tammy Hodgkins noted that if the district closed Latham, it may not be able to provide an alternative for parents seeking out a smaller school. “Social media, word around town is, ‘Oh, Harrison’s opening, Latham’s closed.’” Andrea Griffi th sat through the two and a half hour board meeting with an infant to get more information about her second-grader’s school. “I want him to stay there, it’s a great school. We are a community. It’s small, we feel like a little family over there. It’s hard not to get emotional, I don’t want him getting lost in the shuffl e,” she said. “I feel like this will be a conversation year after year now until it’s closed.” Bullying and behavior has been an issue at the school, which sits on 10.42 acres and was considered for closure once before against Delight Valley. Academic performance, however, remains on the higher end of the district with 25 to 30 percent of third to fi fth grad- ers meeting standards on level three in math and English. The construction of the new Harrison Elementary School has raised concerns over the closure of Latham. According to the school district, many Latham students opt into the school and do not live in the attendance area. Harrison, however, is also an option for stu- dents and is expected to open in the fall of 2018. The board instructed Parent to attempt to assess how many Latham parents intend to send their children to Harrison. The board will combine the information with a guesstimate of the incoming kindergarten class, a scaled down budget for Latham and public comment. “It should be made clear,” Settelmeyer said. “That it doesn’t mean if every parent says they’re keeping their student at Latham, the school will stay open.” He went on to say that the decision to close the school would be left to the school board. School board wrap-up Zach Silva zsilva@cgsentinel.com North to Alaska The Cottage Grove boys bas- ketball team is heading to Ko- diak, Alaska to play in the 51st annual Joe Floyd tournament. The team will be leaving on De- cember 26th and will return on the 31st. First year head coach Nick Finley, who coached in Alaska for the last three years, was con- tacted about a spot in the tour- nament opening up at the last minute for Cottage Grove. At the school board meeting on Monday night, Finley report- ed that the Kodiak School Dis- trict will be paying for the ma- jority of the fl ights in addition to providing lunch and dinner the students that would be going. Additional money will be com- ing through a shoot-a-thon that the team is doing, donations and a sports fund at Cottage Grove High School. The details about lodging are still being ironed out but Kodiak High School has offered to let the team stay at the school. According to the presentation that four team members gave to the school board, about half of the 13 players on the basketball team, consisting of 10 seniors and three juniors, have never fl own on a plane before. Donations at CGHS Chelsea Armstrong, a mem- ber of CGHS student council, reported to the board that the school has been taking dona- tions and will be opening up a winter clothes closet for stu- dents in need. The school is looking for more donations of all kinds and are especially looking for shoes and general hygiene items. A Special Performance Cottage Grove’s charter schools, Academy for Charter Education (ACE) and Child’s Way Charter School, had short performances for the board on Monday night to update them about their school. Two ACE students sang about the fi rst law of thermodynamics while another student from the school recited Chaucer for the school board on Monday night. Following them, a host of staff members from Child’s Way en- tered the meeting playing a sax- ophone and guitars. The staff talked about the activities the school is doing including their music programs, quilting, build- ing and outdoor education. Custodian Honored Cottage Grove High School’s custodian Brian Anderson has been honored by the Oregon safe Schools and Communities Coalition for his work to make the high school a safe place for students to be. ALICE Training In January district teachers and staff members throughout the district will continue tak- ing part in the Alert Lockdown Inform Counter Evacuate (AL- ICE) training program that fo- cuses on active shooter response training. School District Meeting with PeaceHealth On Jan. 8 members of the school board will be meeting with Meghan McCarthy, Peace- Health’s Director of Communi- ty Health, to discuss a possible fi nancial contribution from the company for the new pool reno- vation. The district plans to give a tour of the current pool space and discuss how the rennova- tion will benefi t Cottage Grove and keep people healthy. Honor roll Continued A1 William Hickox Morgan MacDonald Rhianna Nash Caleb Parks Spend what you earn on what you love. Not on ATMs. Switch to Banner Bank Connected Checking ® . Use any ATM in the country, and we’ll refund the fees. Switch today at bannerbank.com/connected-checking. No-Fee ATMs Mobile Banking with Snapshot Deposit ® No Monthly Service Charge Unlimited surcharge rebates from non-Banner-owned ATMs in the U.S. 3.49 – 3.0 Samantha Baker Jimmy Barrone Payton Black Riley Black Caleb Clark Devin Davidge Nicki Derrick Vivianna Du Faux Jake Gerrard Trace Gordon Lauren Kalkowski Jonnathan McGuire Dominic Mills Daniel Olp Justin Smith Madilyn Sprinkle Natalie Thompson
