M H K - The Heppner ( .» /r tlf lim o , tirp p n rr, Oregon W r d n n d it, V p irm lx r I«. I***>
Commentary
School superintendent responds to readers ‘Sound Ofr
Editor’s note
Three weeks ago The GazctteTimes asked readers lo write their reasons
for voting for or against the now thrice defeated xcNxil levy and send them
in We promised to publish responses in the September 3 issue of the G T
anil the September 4 issue of the Boardman F.nterprise
Responses were published last week with the headline. “ Readers 'sound
off" on budget " ,
Morrow County School Supt Doyle MtCaslin has this week responded
to some of the reader's remarks His letter to the editor is printed below
TO THE EDITOR
The voter "sound o ff' page in last week's "Gazette-Times" may
have provided a public service or it may have sewn seeds of greater
discord in the county- time will tell (Please comment on the
cditor'puhlishcr's ethical responsibility to verify the accuracy of
statements before publishing the equivalent of poison pen letters (Voplc
who read the untrue may not bother to read the true )
Some of the factual inaccuracies, misconceptions, and mispercep
tions in the article, however, arc extreme and I believe it is incum
bent upon public officials, especially the superintendent, to do his
best to give tactual information and help people understand the facts
and issues as the hoard has been dealing with them for more than
a year As a matter of tact, many of (he factual matters and items
at issue today have been issues dealt with by school boards in a con
tinual stream of aclions over, it appears to me. the past five or six years
( lose lone High School
One such issue is the issue of closing lone High School A number
of persons in the "sound o f f article seem to believe that by continu
ing to vote no on the budget the board will be compelled to dose
lone High School That is decidedly not the case
The board intends no willfulness or arrogance in that issue and any
such decision about lone High School; quite the contrary The board
has policy, legal policy which has been in effect some three, four,
five years, we're not sure just how long, which addresses the issue
of school closure in any community of the county That policy places
a number of requirements on the hoard, and the school district, and
the citizens of this county. For example
1 The decision to close the school must be announced at least six
months m advance
2 Before an actual dec ision to close any school a full study of the
impact of that closure must be conducted
3 A public hearing must be held in the attendance area where the
school would be closed
4 At the hearing required by No 3, a complete impact statement
of the effect of the closure on the community is required to be
presented That impact statement is required to address the financial
impact of the decisions pmjected five years into the future, the im
pact on class size and teacher ratio in the school closed as well as
the other affected schools, the academic implications for students,
the soc ial implications for students, transportation costs; maintenance
and repair costs for plant operation or closure, the potential impact
on the community, the geographic pmblems involving travel and time;
the impact on home and family; and the impact on students themselves
In other words, the pros and cons of continuing lone High School
in operation have not been fully studied, cither as required by policy
or as would be desirable by people who have a decent respect for
the opinions and welfare of their small town neighbors Certainly it
is l.nr to point out that the overwhelming majority of the people at
lone that is the voting majority vote to support their schools and
schools county wide We believe the facts would show that they pull
their weight in paying taxes as well
It is also fair to point out that any attempt at forced closure at lone
will put the people of lone in a fighting mood, even those who have
some doubts about the viability of a high school as small as (one's
which by the way enmlls 41 youngsters as of today That fighting mood
might translate to a solid block of no votes against schools in Hepp
ner and the rest of the county, enough no votes to defeat any school
budget The chances are great that either the student population at
lone will increase somewhat in the near future because of develop
ment in the northwest section of the county, or the people of lone
will themselves question further the wisdom of maintaining their
school tor so tew (By the way, Irrigon High School closed several
years ago )
Teachers Salaries. Etc.
Teachers's salaries, benefits and working conditions seem to be a
second major item of misinformation or misconception in the “sound
o f f ’articlc Someone commented about the eight month work year
for a twelve month salary. Someone else would have us believe that
teachers put in six hours per day
It is true that teachers work a short year, about 936 months Their
contracts arc for 190 work days Their salaries are. therefore, for 190
work days
The board s objective has been to pay competitive salaries to all
teachers Through lengthy negotiations, the board and the asvvia-
tion representing teachers in collective bargaining agreed on a salary
schedule that would allow the district to compete for new staff members
and continue to pay senior staffers a competitive wage As
we monitor teacher's salaries around the state for the 19Mb 87 school
we find that our salaries at the beginning level are hovering at about
the average wage settlements At the upper levels our salaries appear
to be somewhat better than average, continuing a pattern that has been
in existence tor a considerable period of time.
In any case, rollbacks in teachers' salaries and benefits at a time
The Official Newspaper of the
City of Heppner and the
County of Monow
The Hrppnrr
GAZETTE-TIMES
Morrow County's Home-Owned Weekly Newspaper
U S P S 240-420
P uM hhnl r i m W ntnexdai ami ru ler rd a« m o m k l m m ailer at the Pint t KTVe
al Heppner. O rrfo n under (he I d of M arch .1. i n
Smnnd claw portage paid
al Heppner. ( h efiai O ftV r al 147 Weal Willow S l m l telephone (MO)47fc.*22*
Sddresa «om m unhalloni lo the Heppner (.alette- tim es, P .(> line .1)7, Hepp
nee. Oregon 17XH Suharrlptkim $12 In S to rm » , W heeler, t.llllam and l.ra n l
I «»unties, 12) elsewhere
....
O fltre Manager
t Keen Sating
News )dH nr
Sands Hohe
f.ra p h k s I Sr pari men!
Starle S tru th m
I.ra p h trs Departm ent
Sngle talea
I d Sales â TtpeseOtng
Ju s te Hughes
....................IHsIrthuOon
Honnie Ituw hkr
David and April Sykes, Publishers
•
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that we are facing a teacher shortage, stale wide and nation wide, arc
simply out of the question We observe a greater competitiveness in
our area for teachers every year, with our efforts to recruit spreading
wider and wider. Should wc base our efforts to recruit on what is
occunng in the local economy, exclusively, then staff quality and school
quality are sure to suiter The important fact is that the district is com
peting for teachers, and the district must expect to pay a competitive
teacher wage
On the issue of the short teacher day. most teachers must wish that
they would put in a 40 hour week and he done with it. just as they
must often wish they could go to work right out of high school earn
ing good w-ages and not have the expense and time tied up in getting
a teaching degree, and the added expense and time tied up in keep
ing the teaching certificate, returning to school three to six summers
out of their first ten years of teac hing But the fact is they never recover
the preparation time and expense in teaching The fact is. no teacher
can do a passable job by working six hours per day They certainly
are scheduled to work longer than that
One has to know only a lew teachers to know that as a group they
represent some of the hardest working individuals in any communi
ty They are dedicated to youngsters, to sc hools, and to improvements
in the general welfare of our community In order to teac h successfully
they
must
spend
a
great
deal
more
time
preparing
than
the
time
they
are
given during school hours for it An eight hour day and 40 hour work
week without evening responsibilities and without public scrutiny of
every action and every inaction would be a joy. indeed, to most
teachers But they recognize that professional work requires much
more and the huge majority give their time willingly If we expect
youngsters to learn well from them, they must he accorded more
respect and support than they have lately received all over the country
Budget Committee Preparedness
In the column of comments from those who voted for the levy, one
voter expressed disappointment in the budget committee's lack of
preparedness on August 13 after the second budget failure Perhaps
most people arc not aw-are that the hoard starts its planning for
budgeting by adopting a budget calendar in September each scar This
planning results m a budget election in March at the time the district
is required to have the annual hoard of directors election The board
docs not do a great deal on contingency planning for failure as a result
of the March election, hut once a failure occurs, as happened this
year in March, the board calls the budget committee back into scs
sion and reconsiders the budget
Prior to the budget committee's approval of the budget in January
it cut $2bl.(MXl from the original proposal When the budget w-as
defeated in March the budget committee was called back into session
where it proceeded to a round ot discussions and motions to cut the
budget further Each motion to cut. either by a dollar amount or a
percentage figure, was defeated by the majority and the budget was
resubmitted.
The consensus of the budget committee at that time seemed to he
that since the election was conducted during spring vacation when
many citizens were gone from the county, the budget did not have
a fair chance to pass, therefore, it should be resubmitted as original
ly approved
When the budget was again defeated in May the budget committee
was called back into session and after another round of discussions
and proposals to cut. the budget was. in fact, cut by $344.000 The
cuts ranged over all schools, but were primarily in the areas ot replace
ment and new equipment purchases, remodeling proposals,
maintenance projects and new stall members
The consensus of the budget committee at that time was that the
voting public did want to see cuts in the budget, hut that it had no
mandate to begin cutting programs that had been built up over a
number of years
When the budget was defeated again on August 12 the board had
already decided in July that the county clerk would be notified of
ihc September lb election on the very next day after the election
August 13 This date is the required notification date for a September
lb election, and the hoard felt that it would have no time to meet in
order to make a decision prior to that notification deadline
In behalf of the Nurd, however, the county clerk waited until August
19 to hear the Nurd's decision aNiut the amount which should he
placed on the ballot The Nurd did meet on August IK at its regular
meeting and considered for two hours whether or not to N’gin cut
ting programs that are not required by state minimum standards It
considered the possibility of cutting transportation, kindergartens, the
extra curricular program, extra courses al the high school level which
have been required over the years by the district, hut not by state stan
dards. and extra stall members who arc necessary for the expedient
operation of pmgrams which are required The Nurd again decided
(hat it had no clear nundale to N’gin dismantling any pmgrams which
have been built up over the years by the scNxil district, none of which,
by the way. is a new program
If the budget is defeated again, the same dilemma for the Nurd
persists The Nurd hears aNiut a general dissatisfaction w ith a great
variety ot items aNiut the schools, but it hears scry little that is con
sistent in what should be done aNiut it There seems to he a general
feeling that cuts are needed in the extras, hut one nun's extra is another
man's meat and potatoes, so that what the Nurd is really hearing is
that someone elve s program ought to he cut
Again the Nurd is contmntcd with the pmblcm that is very dif
ficult to solve, one that is made especially difficult by the fact that
neighNirs all amund us are continuing to operate the same programs
in the virtually the same economy as exists in Morrow County If
we were able to compare our programs, program for program, we
believe our costs would compare very favorably. The only real com
parison that we can make that makes any sense in terms of compar
mg economics is to compare the taxes which are paid by our neighNirs
to those paid by ourselves, and certainly in terms of tax rate, Mor
row County compares scry favorably
School Closure
In this sense, the Nurd is justifiably unprepared to understand the
refusal of the majority of the voting public to approve the levies
necessary to balance the budget so that when the Nurd says, if we
continue as wc are going, schools will have to he closed, because
wc arc running out of money The Nurd is not saying either accept
the budget as it is or we will close the schools; it is simply sounding
an aljrm that we cannot go on the same way--if we want to continue
the programs that have been in place in the district for a number of
years, the same type of programs that are being operated by our
neighNirs all over the state, we simply have to pay tor tN>sc pmgrams
it the voters, however, will no longer support a levy to pay tor all
of the pmgrams that arc in place the Nurd needs a clear mandate
on which programs to cut, otherwise it will be shooting in the dark
One alternative suggested by the "sound o ff' article is a general
acmss the Nurd cut That idea seems to lack feasibility for two
reasons first, the budget committee has already cut all of the signifi
cant dollars for program improvements of any kind from the budget,
second, across the Nurd cuts in salary and benefit areas, which is
where the major money is budgeted, would require return to the
negotiations table on two collective bargaining contracts The Nurd
has no authority, under the law. to proceed any other way than retur
n i n g »n
i« * M i¡-» » in n , t-'hit* ,>n that Ivor of issue and it has been
IÜ ÉI
unwilling to helicvc that anyone would wish negotiations hack on the
district when it took lb months to settle one of the contracts
Taxes and IVr Pupil Costs
In a separate letter. Mr Bruce Nicholes. Boardman. displayed his
taxes from the year I9H3-K4 through 198V Mb. indicating a 12% in
crease in one year and a 23% increase the next year, all due to scNxil
taxes Assuming Mr Nicholes has attributed pmpcrly his first year
taxes of $716 to the schools in 198 3 84. his taxes on the same proper
ty based exclusively on an increase in the tax rate for schools should
have been $720 in (he next year, and the year following they should
have been SH74. neither of which represents a 12% and 23% increase
Mr Nicholes also mentions per pupil costs and specifies figures
for 1980 81 and 1983 8b. claiming an increase of 98% over that period
of time From the State Department of Education, audited figures for
1980 81 indicate that the district spent 12845.93 per pupil The State
does not have audited figures for 1983 Kb yet, hut its estimate is that
the district will spend $4253 92 per siudcnt. an increase of 49% in
the period of time that Mr NicNilcs claims that costs increased 98%
Audited costs are invariably, over nuns years, less than estmuted costs,
hut even at that, a 49% increase in what is really a six year period
is a large increase, an increase explained largely by the fact that a
number of new federal requirements were enacted during that period
of time for equity in all educational programs--equity between Niys
and girls, handicapped and non handicapped students, employees, and
a whole variety of new requirements that have kept school Nurds
hopping to meet them.
Administrative Top Heaviness
On the matter of top heaviness in administration, ever since the
|9b0s with the “heat" generation and the 1930s with the "hippie ",
anti establishment generation and the generation gap. and those many
programs that beset us in the I9b0s and T)s, a general feeling has
existed that all organizations arc over administered, especially govern
ment Each time a controversy or community concern develops over
any issue, someone usually takes the opportunity to "sound o f f aNiut
that fact
Of course, the present "sound o f f article is no exception The
amount of administration in Morrow County Schools has not chang
ed in years In January. 198b the Department of Education published
a study entitled "Administrative Expenditures and Staffing in Oregon
ScNxil Districts" Computations derived administrative costs as a per
cent of current expenditures and administrative positions as a per
cent ot toMl positions On administrative costs the state average for
198 3 84 (the most recent year of the study) for districts our size was
108% Percentages for districts with appmximately our student popula
tion ranged fmm 5 5% at C’anby Union High School to 15.5% at Sandy
Union High Morrow County's percentage was II 1% for that year
As a percentage ol total positions in 1984 85 (the most recent year
of this part of the study ) the average for districts our size was 5.31%
with a range from 3 72% at Ixhanun to 7 35% at Silverton Morrow
Countly's percentage was 3.75% for that year, next to the lowest in
the state
As a matter of fact, some of our schixils in Morrow County are
under administered Most schixils the size ot Riverside High Schixil.
Sam Boardman Elementary Schixil and Heppner Elementary School
have full time vice principals where they have none to assist the prin
cipal in a variety of activities With more than 300 students. A C
Houghton Elementary Schixil would qualify, in most districts, for at
least halftime v ice principal Most of our principals are experienced
at getting the job done without much extra help, hut Morrow Coun
ty's principals are like Morrow County's teachers simply human All
tixi human at times, and we have our own unique set ot problems
to deal with, day in and day out, hut in general. Morrow County
Schools are superbly administered.
In terms of payment tor administration. Morrow County’s ad
ministrators are all paid somewhat better than average, and yes. the
superintendent did receive a $1990 merit increase in salary for the
|9Hb 87 schixil year It is also a fact that some people believe that
the superintendent is tixi eager to fight lor what he believes is right
There are others who believe that the superintendent does not fight
hard enough for what he believes to be right In any case, chief ex
ecutive officers in any size organization often are compelled to make
decisions and support Nurd decisions that are difficult and unpopular,
then justify those decisions the best they are able In public hie all
ol those difficult decisions are a public matter, and wc have no public
relations men or tunds to promote an Iacocca image As the French
say- such is life
Finally, we arc obviously divided in spirit over many schixil issues
in this county. Seldom is it more important than now to heal those
divisions, promote understanding ot the other fellow 's priorities, and
rally to support education for children This means faith in the basic
gixxl intentions and gtxxl will of one another, optimism aNiut the
future, and a willing spirit of corporation acmss all real and unaginars
dividing lines m the county.
Sincerely
(s)Doylc McCaslin
Superintendent
Don’t steal from one community
TO THF EDITOR
A scNxil is a plate ot learning and
learning is called educational I trust
the majority of responses in last
week s Gazette were nude in ig
norance and not stupidity Ignorance
is when you don't have all of the
tacts but arc willing to learn and
Nncfit from them it you get them
Stupidity is when even it you hail all
the tacts you refuse to learn or
benefit
For the several people in Heppner
wNi tclt in order to have a more
economical budget tor our schools
wc should close lone High School
and bus them to Heppner. I suggest
that wc do the opposite, close Hepp
ner High ScNxil and bus them to
lone It would serve the same pur
pose in the budget, and wc could
give the money lo Hardman High
ScNxil and Irrigon High Schixil
Benefits to this suggestion lone has
a turf football field, fine tennis
courts, swimming pixil. an excellent
gymnasium, and a fine high scNxil
building Plus gtxxl teachers and ad
ministration who really care aNiut
their young people, not to mention
the concerned parents and comnium
t> at large, if you don't believe me
look at the voting record
Other things that need to be
brought out arc these facts lone
Grade and high wNx>ls were in ex
isicncc long hclore tN- county-wide
scNxil sysienicamc in Considering
the lurt athletic field that was pul in
by community spirit and effort, not
lax dollars the preseni high scNxil
building, swimming p«xi|. and ten
ms courts are prixlucts ot the lone
( (immunity tax dollars and jx'oplc
l.ei mo remind you again, ihcse
things were tacts long before this
present county scNxil system was
instituted
One letter that I'm sure was in
tended tor a jiun of sorts mentioned
they had forgotten how their educa
tion was paid and by voting against
ihc budget would have more money
for beer I'm sure rnosi ot us waste
more money on leisure and pleasure
than the possible tax increase would
cost Us
I am not in favor of over taxation,
nor waste in government and
bureaucratic administration and I'm
sure there is a lot ot Nith Let us join
together in a constructive cltort to
make our present system work on a
county wide basis Lari's not steal
trom one community to benefit
others
I inv itc all tNise who don't like it
to leave and all tNise who do like it
to join in a common Nind and make
it work
My due revpcctx to all
(s)David Barnett
lone