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The INDEPENDENT, June 6, 2001
anks School Board hears proposed technology requirements
Banks School District Board
of Directors approved new
members of the administrative
team and discussed a new
high school graduation require
ment at their May 14 meeting.
Board member Gene Kelly
asked Superintendent Marilyn
McGlasson to outline the
process used to hire new mem
bers of the administrative
team.
Since Elementary Principal
Ester Lee has only been with
the Banks district for one year,
the retirement of junior high
Principal Ted Faro and the res
ignation of high school Princi
pal Jeff Smith could have left
the district with novice princi
pals at all three schools. In or
der to avoid this and insure
continuity, Jim Foster, who has
been with the district for many
years was transferred to the
High School Principal’s job.
Though often seen by the pub
lic as disciplinarian, Foster’s
previous role as High School
Vice Principal was consider
ably broader in scope and both
McGlasson and the board felt
Foster was well qualified to
move into the principal’s job.
Candidates for junior high
principal and high school vice
principal were screened and in
terviewed by two different
groups composed of staff, ad
ministrators and the public.
Martin Voge comes to Banks
from Scappoose to become
principal at the junior high. He
was principal at Grant Watts El
ementary for three years and
has 16 years of teaching expe
rience. The new high school
vice-principal/athletic director
will be Jim Smith. Smith is cur
rently an administrative intern
with the Hillsboro School Dis
trict and head track coach at
Glencoe High School. He has
14 years teaching experience.
High school principal Jeff
Smith opened the discussion
about making the new Technol
ogy Concepts a graduation re
quirement by clarifying when
this would be put into effect.
The course will be offered next
year, for the first time, as an
elective. It will be a recom
mended elective for all classes
until the class of 2005, at which
time it is proposed as a re
quirement for graduation. No
change is proposed in the total
number of credits required for
graduation (24). Instead, the
number of electives would be
reduced from eight to seven in
order to add the new require
ment.
Board members expressed
concern that students have an
opportunity to take electives
and were reassured by Smith
that the total number of credits
possible, varies from 28 to 32,
depending on how many class
es a student takes per term.
The requested change is
part of an overall technology
plan developed over the last
four months by a group of
teachers, administrators and
community members. Scott
Bradley, a committee member
with 15 years of technology in
dustry experience, told the
board that there “isn’t a career
out there that does not involve
technology.” Asked why the
course should be required
rather than just an elective,
Smith said the committee de
cided that all students should
have to learn essential techni
cal skills. He compared this ex
pectation to previous expecta
tions that all students take typ
ing classes to graduate at a
time when typing was the cur
rent “technology”.
Brad Henegar will be devel
oping the course from materi
als presented in “Building a
Foundation for Tomorrow,” a
curriculum developed in Belle
vue, Wash., and in use in
schools throughout Washing
ton. The course is designed as
a survey of technology applica
40 active members. Several
members received proficien
cies. The chapter has had sev
eral very successful fundrais
ers, including a recently con
cluded plant sale. The public is
invited to the FFA Spring Ban
quet to be held May 23rd.
leader in developing new cur
riculum. Board member Willis
Meeuwsen expressed concern
about installing a course as a
requirement when it has not
been “tested”. He was howev
er, along with other board
members, generally in favor of
offering the course as an elec
tive. The board will continue
this discussion and make a de
cision at next month’s meeting.
Duane Lundstat, another com
The Banks chapter of Future
munity member of the commit Farmers of America (FFA) has
tee, said that, by implementing received numerous awards at
this course, Banks has the the district and state level ac
“ability to put out students that cording to Scott Jansen and
are not just good, but great.”
Brad Evers. The chapter has
Superintendent McGlasson been recognized for the last
reminded the board that Banks two years as the fastest grow
High School is considered a ing chapter and now has 35 -
tions with emphasis on career
opportunities. Students will
“work” for a fictitious company
as Production Assistants in a
full range of technical applica
tions including hardware and
software installation and con
figuration, graphics, database
and spreadsheet design, word
processing, research, e-mail
and multimedia presentation.
In other business the board:
• Approved adoption of
health textbooks;
• Approved school fees for
2001-2002 including a new fee
of $10 for Photo/Journalism
and an increase from $5 to $10
for Agricultural/lndustrial Edu
cation;
• Announced that the sec
ond annual Summer School
will begin June 18th.
Water user fee may bail out drowning Banks budget
Banks City Council, at a
special meeting on May 16,
reached a consensus on how
to institute user fees on city wa
ter to reduce the city’s budget
deficit and support the police
department, but not whether to
do so. Council has been con
sidering the fee for two months
and the budget approved by
the budget committee includes
revenue that would be generat
ed by a fee of 10 cents for
every thousand gallons of wa
ter used (.001).
Banks has modeled the pro
posed plan on the charges as
sessed by the city of Cornelius.
The fees in Cornelius were
originally franchise fees, as
sessed as a percentage of
profits. As of May 1st, the fee
was changed to a user fee,
based on a percentage of use.
Cornelius is using the funds
provided by the fee to fund em
ployee positions that would
have had to be cut and is a per
manent part of the budget. The
fee being considered in Banks
is proposed as a temporary
measure, primarily to eliminate
the city’s debt and, secondarily,
to provide additional funds for
the police department. Accord
ing to Orlowski the city “could
exist on the (current) tax base,
outside of the police depart
ment" if the debt were eliminat
ed.
Lucas indicated that the city
could charge users a fee. Ore
gon’s voter-approved property
tax limitation measures would
not affect a user fee as long as
the fee was not attached to as
sess property values in any
way. In addition, any fee estab
lished would have to be “rea
sonable." A variety of methods
can be used to determine if a
proposed fee is reasonable in
cluding comparison with fees
charged by other municipali
ties, fees charged to other utili
ties, and public comment.
Public comment was re
quested through question
naires sent with the April bills to
all 660 water users. By May 16,
141 responses - a remarkable
21.5 percent - had been re
ceived by the city. A response
rate of 10-15 percent is con
sidered normal for this type of
survey.
Forty percent of those re
sponding indicated that a fee of
.001 would be acceptable. An
additional 14 percent indicated
that a higher rate of .002 would
be acceptable. Sixteen percent
of the responses indicated
preference for a property tax,
however, Oregon law would
make it difficult to raise the
needed income through in
creased property taxes. Only
seven percent of the respon
dents wrote “No” on their re
turned surveys and 20 percent
of the surveys included unclas
sified, written responses.
Councilor Ryan Birr said he
felt that the city had no choice
but to enact some kind of fee in
order to have the ability to re
duce the city’s budget deficit.
Attempting to define the meth
ods of establishing whether or
not a fee is reasonable for
council Lucas indicated that, in
addition to public comment, the
current water rate should be
compared to water rates in oth
er municipalities. Franchise
fees assessed on other utilities
within the city should also be
compared. Lucas and city engi
neer Dale Merrill will prepare a
report on city franchise fees
and comparable cities water
rates for the June council
meeting.
Councilor Tim Hardie asked
Lucas and Orlowski what the
effects of continuing to operate
with a deficit would be. One ef
fect, according to Lucas, would
be to decrease the city’s ability
to bond debt. Orlowski said
that Oregon does have a bal
anced budget law that applies
to all public bodies and that
there is no allowance in the law
to plan to overspend. The risk,
according to Orlowski, is that
individual councilors could be
sued by individual taxpayers
for approving a deficit budget.
“The real question is; ‘Would
the citizens rather have a coun
cil that passes a budget that
contains real numbers or, as ferred from the water depart
happens in many small cities, a ment to cover remaining ex
penses in this fiscal year was
budget with questionable num
approved for the purchase of a
bers just to meet budget law?’ ”
police vehicle from the Port
Orlowski said. The budget pro
land police department. This
posed by Orlowski and ap
will result in an increase of the
proved by the budget commit
projected budget deficit for this
tee reflects tight spending, con
fiscal year. However, according
tinued efforts to economize and
to Orlowski, it is still expected
conservative revenue projec
that the budget will end next
tions.
Council reached a consen fiscal year (2001-2002) without
sus and requested that Mayor a deficit as projected.
Orlowski have a resolution pre
pared for discussion at the
June 12 meeting. The parame
ters discussed included enact
ing the fee by resolution with a
“sunset” clause and establish
ing a defined amount of the
revenue to be used for debt re
Phone 429-9410
duction. Orlowski urged the
public to attend the next regu
lar council meeting June 12th,
where the resolution enacting a
water user fee will be dis
cussed and voted on.
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The INDEPENDENT
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Other business before the
council concerned expenses in
the police department. Chief
Daryl Crandall said that he
needs both new computers
and new police cars as soon as
possible. Council directed
Crandall to use the $2,500 re
maining in the 2000-2001
budget to purchase computers.
$7,000 of the money trans
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