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About Polk County itemizer observer. (Dallas, Or) 1992-current | View Entire Issue (April 20, 2016)
SENIOR LIVING, RETIRING PRIEBE FINDS CALLING IN SEE INSIDE Section C JIU JITSU Volume 141, Issue 16 www.Polkio.com Page 8A 75¢ April 20, 2016 Counties to take feds to court IN YOUR TOWN Polk among group alleging mismanagement of O&C timber harvests By Jolene Guzman The Itemizer-Observer POLK COUNTY — The Bureau of Land Management released its final proposal for a new “resource man- agement plan” for Western Oregon last week. Pending a record of decision finalizing it as the new plan, its next stop could be in a courtroom. Polk is among a group of 17 counties planning to sue the federal government over the plan for man- aging 2.5 million acres the BLM oversees west of the Cascades, also known as “O&C lands.” Those counties, part of the Association of O&C Counties (AOCC), say the plan is not fol- lowing the law when setting target harvest levels. The plan sets a goal of 278 million board feet per year, an in- crease what is being cut now, and puts 75 per- cent of the land in re- serves. Neither of those pro- visions sit well with the counties. O & C l a n d s we re once under private ownership, but taken back by the federal government and set aside through legisla- tion to provide revenue to the counties con- taining the lands. The Congressional act mandated a minimum harvest of 500 million board feet. “Our position simply would be to have the court force the BLM to rework the plan in ac- cordance with the 1937 act,” said Polk County Commissioner Craig Pope, who also serves on the AOCC board. “We continue to main- tain that we can achieve the harvest lev- els described in the act and maintain clean water, fish habitat, and recreational opportu- nities as well.” Oregon’s lawmakers have crafted proposals to strike a balance on the lands, including a p l a n by S e n . Ro n Wyden introduced that would increase the harvest target to 400 million board feet per year for the next 50 years. In 2012, reps. Peter DeFazio, Kurt Schrader, and Greg Walden proposed a plan to put 1.5 million acres of O&C lands into a trust to be managed by a committee ap- pointed by the gover- nor. Ultimately, neither plan had enough sup- port to become law. Pope said filing the lawsuit is the last resort for the counties after years of wrangling over the issue. “We are watching proponents of other activities succeed in their lawsuit process. They are dictating how government responds,” Pope said. “It’s resulted now in a plan that is going to lock up 75 per- cent of those acres that, by law, are direct- ed to produce timber. In this particular case, we either do this or we just lay down and let the federal government just take it in a way that doesn’t make sense economically.” See TIMBER, Page 2A DALLAS Library programs have evolved from just checking out books to programs that appeal to all ages. » Page 3A FALLS CITY Council considers hir- ing its own city engi- neer with so many proj- ects going on in Falls City. » Page 2A Fore! Deer dodges golf balls at Dallas tournament INDEPENDENCE The city won a sum- mary judgement in the foreclosure proceed- ings of the old city hall building. Golfers during the Mid- Willamette Conference’s girls golf tournament on Monday morning received some surprise guests. Two deer ran across the fairway of the first hole at Cross Creek Golf Course, causing a brief pause in play. The deer made it safely across and play contin- ued. Central, Dallas, Lebanon, Woodburn, Crescent Valley, Corvallis and South Albany com- peted in the league tour- nament. For results from the tour- nament, see Page 9A. » Page 3A MONMOUTH sgt. kim Dorn said the community must help protect children against abuse and dan- gerous situations. » Page 11A SPORTS kings Valley senior Ryan Macnab excelling in track and field de- spite a lack of experi- ence. Lukas EggEn/Itemizer-Observer » Page 9A Enrollment numbers reason for $1M loss Fewer students attending causes state to ‘take back’ money from Dallas School District By Jolene Guzman The Itemizer-Observer DALLAS — It’s a “perfect storm” of circumstances that has Dallas School District ending its budget year with $1 million less than it had anticipated. With increases in Oregon Public Employees Retirement System looming, the loss couldn’t have come at a worse time. School funding from the state is based on enrollment. Districts are paid about $7,000 per student, more for those who are English language learners, in a teen par- enting program, in special educa- tion, and considered in poverty. Districts send the state enrollment projections to base funding amounts on and later update the actual enrollment data. The state uses the actual enroll- ment data to make adjustments, giving districts more money if ac- tual student counts are higher than projected or less if it is lower. For Dallas, the primary issue is an unanticipated decline in enroll- ment. The district made predic- tions for the current year in De- THE NEXT 7 DAYS PLANNING FOR YOUR WEEK cember of 2014. “They were higher than they should have been,” said Tami Montague, the district’s business manager. “When kids started showing up in September, there just weren’t as many as we had an- ticipated.” She said the district was expect- ing an increase based on develop- ment activity, but there was no corresponding jump in the num- ber of children enrolling. The dif- ference from December 2014, when projections were made, to December 2015, when actual data was reported, equaled 134 fewer students. That pattern will continue, based on the district’s calculations, Mon- tague said. In 2016-17, the expected loss is 138 students — 85 of those are due to law changes for the dis- trict’s fifth-year program. That is a one-time loss. But in 2017-18, the slide continues, with 63 fewer stu- dents expected. “If you look at the numbers in each of the classes, even the ones we have attending through our charter schools, the class sizes are just going down,” Montague said. “The numbers that we have com- ing in are not as big as the num- bers that we have leaving.” That trend isn’t the only factor in the $1 million loss. For a variety of reasons, districts typically lose students between December and the end of the school year. In a normal year Dal- las loses about 12 students. In 2014-15, it lost 58. The major- ity of them were students in the fifth-year program, Extended Campus, who took an extra term to finish their degree. So in De- cember they were counted as stu- dents for funding purposes, but by June they were gone. That kind of decrease will never happen again as students are no longer permit- ted to participate in a fifth-year program for more than a year, Montague said. That matters because the state assumes districts will lose students during that time period and builds it into its funding formula, Mon- tague said. To prevent huge swings, it takes the average of the previous two years. For Dallas, however, that formu- la means it will take another hit equivalent to 40 students, she said. Dallas’ actual losses in the 2015-16 school year aren’t likely to be that high, so the state will “pay back” the district, but not until the next fiscal year. Anomalies like this year can’t be accounted for, Montague said. “It is written into the law that they take the December to June (ratio). That is the way the formula is applied,” she said. “That is how it is. I had that conversation.” Another factor is contributing to the loss. The state is changing the way it calculates student poverty rates, using a yearly update instead of the U.S. Census figured every 10 years. With the change, there are fewer students in poverty in Dallas, meaning a loss of $114,000. With all those factors added up, the district is losing the funding equivalent of 196 students, but with a new charter school opening this year in the district, the net loss is 87, Montague said. That equals $604,334. The state also is reconcil- ing the 2014-15 school year, com- paring projections to actual enroll- ment, which has the district losing another $406,242. Montague said the district will finish the year with an ending fund balance of about $1 million, but it had hoped to have more to save for PERS changes. The PERS board will be reporting the new rates this summer which go into effect in July 2017. “We get this year to plan for it, which we were trying to do,” Mon- tague said. “We really had a great plan to get that ending fund bal- ance up so we could weather that.” Montague said with declining enrollment, it’s natural that the district is losing money, but in a bi- ennium that added $600 million to the state school fund, the losses are hard to swallow. “I find myself feeling really frus- trated this year because school funding was good,” Montague said. “We were anticipating a bien- nium of pretty solid ground to stand on. I think that many dis- tricts are feeling that is not the case and feeling frustrated with that.” Dallas School District Budget Committee will meet on Monday at 6 p.m. at the district office to discuss the 2016-17 budget. wed thu fri sat sun mon tue Learn more about the Old Testament while enjoying a brew of choice at st. Thomas Episcopal Church in Dallas. 7 p.m. Free. Monmouth-Inde- pendence Chamber will host its after- hours mixer, a net- working event, at Washington Fed. 5:30-7 p.m. Free. Dallas City Park is the place to cele- brate Earth Day with tours of the Delbert Hunter arboretum and refreshments. 1-4 p.m. Free. Bring work gloves and garden tools to kings Valley Charter school and help with some garden- ing chores. 9:30 a.m. Free. Listen to what the candidates for House District 23 have to say about representing you at the fairgrounds. 6-8 p.m. Free. Come hear an ex- pert on daylilies at the monthly meet- ing for the Dallas garden Club at the Evangelical church. 6:30 p.m. Free. James2 Community kitchen feeds all who are hungry each Tuesday at st. Philip Catholic Church in Dallas. 4:30-6 p.m. Free. Partly Cloudy Hi: 73 Lo: 43 Partly Cloudy Hi: 71 Lo: 46 Rain Hi: 65 Lo: 48 Showers Hi: 61 Lo: 43 Showers Hi: 58 Lo: 40 Partly Cloudy Hi: 60 Lo: 39 Mostly sunny Hi: 63 Lo: 43
