SENIOR LIVING, RETIRING PRIEBE FINDS CALLING IN
SEE INSIDE Section C JIU JITSU
Volume 141, Issue 16
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Page 8A
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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-
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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.
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