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About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 18, 2002)
Heppner community sees consolidation as one solution to school crisis Be33ie Wet zel 1 U of U f;e»3ya -:-jr Li brcry E u g e n e , OR VOL. 121 NO. 51 10 Pages 974J3 Wednesday, December 18,2002 Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon lone Site Council discusses cuts to school funding At the Dec. 11, 2002, the lone Site Council discussed. Principal M ike Stuart explained to the council, the budget cuts approved by the school board earlier this w eek. A strategic planning meeting has been set for T uesday, D ec. 17 reg a rd in g com m unity action specific to lo n e ’s school situation. M uch d is c u s s io n c o n c e r n in g th e possible teacher and/or classified employee cuts was brought up at the m ee tin g , w ith id eas for p o s s ib le s o lu tio n s b e in g generated. Stuart also explained the w orkings o f his retirem ent and 1 stated that he will be rehired full tim e on a sp ecial b asis. He clarified that he has not retired from his job and will be working hard to support our school and our community. In other business: -A c c e le ra te d R e a d e r (Elem entary): The softw are is installed (w e are w aiting for a serial num ber to be able to use) and books are in and processed, a demonstration will be given next month on how to use the system. -SOS Reading Program (Secondary): Jennifer Pambrun and her associate cam e and did a se c o n d in -s e rv ic e fo r the teachers. -Site Council By-Laws: They are specific by-laws for the lone Site C ouncil giving the mission and goals o f the council. We are in com pliance w ith the by-laws except for meeting times and room number. Ihe secretary will re-type the by-laws show ing those changes we have made and a ls o a d d “ e: s tu d e n t b o d y president or designee. Student representative shall be elected by the student council. The current ‘e ’ w ould then be T . " T he council agreed to this change. -T e stin g : C o m m e n ts w e re m ade about th e implementation o f snacks during testing and better orchestration o f it. It was suggested that there be a testing liaison to go between the council and the testing (DART) coordinator. It was decided that the Vice-Chair o f the site council, V ic k i W a g e n b la s t, be th e d e sig n e e to m ak e sure th at cookie (or other snack) people get notified before testing dates. T he chairpersons (D ean and A nita) will be responsible for letting Jim Raible know that he n e e d s to c o n ta c t V ic k i im m ediately w hen testing is to occur. -M ik e s h a re d s o m e prelim inary num bers on test results. 92 percent o f lone’s 3rd g r a d e r s a lr e a d y m et th e benchm ark in reading and 75 percent in Math. At the 5th grade level, 55 percent reading and 64 percent in math; 8th grade, 83 p e rc e n t in R e a d in g and 50 percent in M ath; 10th, four out o f 17 still need to pass in reading, nine out o f 17 passed in math. T hree l l t h graders have not passed reading and five did not pass in math out o f 15 students. 12th grade: o f 17 students, 14 passed reading and 14 passed m ath. T here w as d iscu ssio n about w hether we could require juniors and seniors who haven’t passed the benchm ark to take a m ath class. M ike instructed us that the State o f O regon only requires tw o years o f M ath to graduate. There was discussion about counseling with the student in the spring regarding w hat classes to take and other options to aid in passing the benchmarks. -Pop cans: We decided to officially donate the non-Pepsi cans/bottles to the Shenanigans fiddlers group. -T h e s ite c o u n c il d e c id e d to m eet m o re than m onthly to plan and talk and figure out what our role will be in coming up with school funding. The next date then was decided to be Jan. 8,2 0 0 3 at 5:30, with an invitation sent the advisory board to join in the meeting. Recognition- -G irls took l st place in th e b a s k e tb a ll bonanza tournament. -D ia n a M c E llig o tt received the silver m edal in W endy’s Heisman competition. She is one o f tw o representing the state o f Oregon at the national level. -A d a m N e if f e r w as awarded defensive player o f the y e a r in fo o tb a ll fo r B e lo it University. Neighborhood Center to distribute food baskets Neighborhood Center Coordinator, Janice Skaggs, along with volunteers, Sharon Brace and My rtle McMillan work on filling Christmas boxes. T h e N e ig h b o rh o o d Center o f South Morrow C ounty is distributing Christmas baskets and presents to fam ilies around the area. Fifty-five food baskets w ill be d istrib u ted to South Morrow County families and 32 children and 13 seniors will receive Christmas bwxes. Boxes will be distributed Thursday, Dec. 19. ALL NEWS AND ADVERTISEMENT DEADLINE: MONDAYS AT 5:00 P.M. 4 \ taking salary, retirem ent and o th er benefits into acco u n t. A group o f around 100 Kindergarten through sixth grade at a m eeting M onday night at personnel costs, including salary H e p p n e r H ig h S c h o o l put and benefits for 2002-03, are consolidation o f the Heppner and $ 9 3 5,889; s e v e n - I 2 ,h g rad e lone high schools near the top o f personnel costs are S l , 169,940. ways to fix the M orrow County H e a ls o s a id th a t s p a re School District budget crisis. The classroom budgets left little for district needs to cut at least S l .5 cuts w ith the K -third grade million from the budget and has classroom budget at $14,381; targeted south end schools, not the fourth-sixth grade classroom only because o f the budget crisis, budget at $20,347; the m iddle but also b ecau se the school board has established a goal o f school classro o m budget at $13,153; and the high school “ equity” am ong the schools, budget at $25,920. Maintenance m e a n in g th a t th e s c h o o ls and o th er se rv ic es (re p a irs, shouldn't spend more than they supplies, materials, travel, utilities, bring in. The board said that they field trips, postage periodicals, w ould cut funding to the south dues and subscriptions) are as county sch o o ls irregardless. follow s: K -six th g rad e are Small schools in H eppner and $109,100; seven-12, $120,250. lo n e ty p ic a lly o p e ra te o v er T o ta l c o s ts fo r H e p p n e r budget, while schools in the north E lem entary S chool K -6 are end o f the district have more $ 1 ,0 7 9 ,7 1 7 . T otal co sts for students and more English- as-a- H eppner M iddle School/H igh s e c o n d - la n g u a g e s tu d e n ts , School are $ 1,329,263. thereby bringing in m ore state O th e r s o lu tio n s at funding. A lso, sm aller rural M onday's meeting included: schools have proven to be more -reducing the d istric t's cash expensive to operate. carryover. The school board has Those assem bled at the in d ic a te d th a t they w ish to Monday night meeting asked for maintain $1.5 m illion to ensure volunteers to meet w ith members c o n tin u e d o p e ra tio n o f the of the lone community to attempt district, especially in the event o f to w ork out a com prom ise to further state funding cuts, com bine the tw o high schools, -addressing the board in “equity" which, they say, will solve the education. Many in the audience funding problems, eliminate the d isa g re e d w ith th e b o a rd ’s need for deep teacher cuts and definition o f equity, commenting dram atically revitalize the two that cuts in curriculum did not schools' bare bones curriculums. provide south Morrow County The lone community, however, students w ith an education equal m et previously and agreed to to that provided students in north w ork with the b oard’s cuts, as Morrow County. “I object to the long as the lone School remained use o f 'e q u ity ',” said David C. open. A llen o f H eppner. “ There is H eppner S c h o o ls absolutely no fairness. ‘It's about Principal Wade Smith distributed sharing the good and the bad and a pared-dow n sam ple school we share the bad. T hat's not sc h ed u le fo r H ep p n er H igh equity.” “They also need to look School for next year, taking at equity o f program s w ith an drastic cuts into account, and equal curriculum throughout the a n o th e r o n e w h ic h w o u ld county,” added Jerry Breazeale, combine Heppner and lone high also o f Heppner. Ann M urray schools. Smith said teacher cuts pointed out that five o f seven would be reduced if the two high school board members w ould be schools w ere com bined. (See up for election in May. “We have p ro p o s e d s a m p le c la s s the opportunity to change the schedules) Currently H eppner m akeup o f the b o a rd ," said Elementary School (kindergarten Murray. O f the seven members, through sixth grade) has 10 full the positions held by Larry Mills, time equivalent teachers, .8 FTE Burke O 'B rien, both Heppner, sp e c ia l ed te a c h e r, .5 FTE Gary Frederickson. Boardman, reading teacher and .5 FTE band Pat McNamee, Irrigon, and John tea c h e r; tw o FTE c u sto d ia l Rietmann, lone, will all be up for e m p lo y e e s , 3.5 F T E ed election. Only two, Julie Weikel assistants, l FTE librarian, l FTE o f Boardman and John Renfro o f secretary, l .5 FTE one-on-one L e x in g to n , w ill not fac e ed a ssista n t, .25 FTE lunch reelection. business em ployee, 1.75 FTE -floating a local operating levy, cooks and .8 FTE administrator. w hich is allow ed by law and Currently Heppner High School w hich could bring in more money (grades seven-12) has 13 FTE teachers, .5 FTE counselor, .5 for the district, based on assessed FTE band teacher. .34 FTE art valuation. teacher, one special ed teacher, -increasing volunteerism to take 2 custodians. 1.5 secretaries, one up the slack in support services librarian, one one-on-one ed if support staff is cut. assistant, .5 laundry employee. -m oving seventh and eighth 2.5 ed a ssista n ts, .25 lunch graders to the elementary school business em ployee. 1.2 cooks as a cost-sav ing measure. and .7 administrator. Smith said -w ithdraw ing from the current th at each te a c h e r c o sts the school district and form ing a district approximately $56,000, separate district. -coordinating classes among high schools in the district, so that more courses can be offered via \ -tel. -calling legislators to encourage a legislative solution to the funding shortfall. -seeking grants and endowments, -contracting custodial services, -reducing the district’s technology budget. -recruiting home school students, -establishing block scheduling w hereby classes w ould be held fo r lo n g e r p e rio d s, but not necessarily every day, so that s c h o o ls c o u ld b e tte r sh a re teachers. -selling the district office, -esta b lish in g d o rm ito ries to attract students from diverse areas. Smith told the assembly that the $1.5 million in cuts may not be the w orst-case scenario and pointed out that the board has outlined another five percent in cuts across the board in each school if state funding is reduced even further. “ I don't think this is the last o f the hits," said Smith. Smith presented a view of a dw indling student population for Heppner schools and gave the audience a handout with the follow ing projections for 2003- 04: kin d erg arten -17 students; first grade-20; second grade-24; third grade-35; fourth grade-33; fifth grade-28; sixth grade-38; seventh grade-34; eighth grade- 37; ninth grade-30; 10th grade- 39; 11th grade-33; 12th grade- 30. According to district figures, Heppner schools K -12 had 467 students in 1998-99; 459 in 99- 00; 423 in 00-01; 401 in 01-02; 398 in 02-03 and a projected 397 in 03-04. Christmas food boxes to be given away Eighty boxes o f food will be given away at Christian Life C enter, 535 W. M organ St., Heppner, on Wednesday, Dec. 18 at 7 p.m . The boxes will c o n ta in m eat, p o tato es and canned goods. A short devotional and prayer w ill be held at 7 p.m., after w hich the boxes will be distributed. Anyone is welcome to com e and receive a box o f food. For more information, or to ask about receiving leftover boxes o f food, call 676-5581. Garden Club makes donation to the citv %> Chuck Bailey, president o f the H eppner G arden Club, made a donation on behalf o f the club to the City o f Heppner. The $250 donation w as made to pay for bricks purchased and installed by the Heppner Christmas tree. Morrow County Grairf^Growers Lexington 9 8 9 -8 2 2 1 • 1 -8 0 0 -4 5 2 -7 3 9 6 i« farm equipment, mit #ur web site at www mcgg net
