Heppner Gazette-Times, Heppner, Oregon Wednesday, November 19, 1997 - FIVE
W heat Commission plans meeting
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Not the whole truth
T o the Editor:
The retirement plan offered by
PERS to teachers and administra­
tors was detailed at the regular
Novem ber meeting o f the M or­
row County school board and re­
ported this week in our local pa­
per. I quote: “ For example, i f a
person had $200,000 in his PERS
retirem ent account, this deal
w o u ld a llo w an a d d ition a l
$42,000 in retirement benefits to
be spread out for monthly pay­
ments for the remainder o f his
life." This example was placed on
the bulletin board in the meeting
room.
T o o many o f the statistics Su­
perintendent Starr presents to the
board and upon which parents and
taxpayers base their judgments o f
school perform ance should be
noted for what they don’t say as
much as for what they do.
The teachers and administra­
tors that retire by February 1998
w ill receive a 21 percent jump in
retirement benefits for two years,
not one year. So the $42,000 ex­
ample is not accurate.
W e have consistently heard
poor statistical information con­
cerning school performance from
Supt. Starr. I believe the PERS
windfall was devised to downsize
as industry' has had to do, and to
get new people on the job who are
w illing to facilitate an improve­
ment in student academic perfor­
mance.
At a recent school board’ s con­
vention, the author o f Senate Bill
880 (the teacher tenure law) told
board members that lawmakers
w ill revisit the law in the next ses­
sion with an eye towards changes
i f school boards don’t take advan­
tage o f the current law to improve
school performance.
B y March 15, 1998, school
boards w ill have to tell every
teacher in their districts whether
his or her contract w ill be ex­
tended. I f it is not, board mem­
bers w ill have to see that the
teachers get a plan o f assistance
to ’help improve his or her teach­
ing. Each year, on March 15,
school boards are required to give
teachers renewal or nonrenewal
notices. Plans are required for any
teacher not renewed.
It was noted that standards un­
der which teachers can be dis­
missed have not changed. It was
also noted that the real value o f
Senate Bill 880 is that it forces
administrators and school boards
to review annually how teachers
and principals are doing on im­
proving student performance.
In M orrow County, any such
review has to be based on full sta-
tistics-not on half truths. As other
schools upgrade, do w e really
want 35 percent o f south Morrow
and 60 percent o f north Morrow
students to fail to receive the Cer­
tificates o f Mastery which is be­
coming necessary to get a fam ­
ily-w age job ? A s stated in the
Oregonian, this is what the O r­
egon Dept, o f Education predicts
for our future, based on our last
state assessment scores, i f no
changes are made.
Incomplete statistics and wish­
ful thinking w on’ t help here. The
tenure law applies to administra­
tors also whose job performance
needs review.
(s) M eg Murray
lone
l he Oregon Wheat Commission
w ill hold a regular meeting on
Wednesday, December 3, in the
Hawthorne Room o f the Double
Tree/Lloyd Center Hotel at 1000
NE
Multnomah,
Portland,
Oregon, at 1 p.m.
The Oregon Wheat Commission
complies with the Americans
with Disabilities Act (A D A ).
The
ADA
p roh ibits
scnmination against persons
Paper
Gazette-Times
676-9228
FIX U P
PAINT UP
WINTERIZE
Get Ready
for the
ARTIFACTORY 9 7 '
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10 am to 3 pm
Fair Pav-ilioa -
Heppner,
Lunch sarvad by
Soroptlmlsts
D o o r P r iz o s
Child
F A X
with disabilities. Anyone who
would like to participate in these
meetings, but who needs special
accommodations, is asked to
contact the Oregon
Wheat
Commission office 48 hours in
advance at (503) 229-6665 or
T D D (503) 986-4762.
The commission meeting is
open to the public and anyone
wishing to attend is encouraged
and welcome to do so.
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