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About The independent. (Vernonia, Or.) 1986-current | View Entire Issue (July 18, 2002)
Page 2 The INDEPENDENT, July 18, 2002 beli'ewe. jt ('AAÎC A C ud, • |T t, C u j / WS Z a / y Oregon Legislature is truly remarkable! What a bunch, our state legislature! They are pleased to have come up with a “balanced” budget — and it required only three special sessions! What courage! They actually increased the cigarette tax...well, sort of. At least they referred an increase to the voters, that’s almost courageous, isn’t it? And statewide special elections only cost a little bit of mon ey, don’t they? How perceptive they are, too! The voters made it quite clear in the last election that they disapproved of budget balancing by taking $220 million out of an edu cation trust fund that had only $300 million in it. But our perceptive legislature knows the voters really want to decimate that trust fund, so they put it back on the bal lot with just a little less money involved! And their accounting abilities are truly remarkable, too—almost as good as the accounting in those com panies that capture headlines every day...Enron, Glob al Crossing, WorldCom, Tyco. Our legislature is just as creative as those compa nies, too. After all, it takes a great imagination to pre tend that this year’s expenses don’t matter because we won’t account for them until next year. And what’s this big hurrah about education being un derfunded? Hey, if schools really need money for something as trivial as education, our legislature will let them borrow it! After all, paying interest isn’t really like spending money, is it? Besides, when those overprivi leged kids get out of public school, they can pay for this year’s balanced budget! What courage! What perceptiveness! What creative accounting! What imagination! Kidding aside, the budget put together by this legis lature is a parody. Pretending that even a small part of this year’s expenses don’t exist if they aren’t paid until the next biennium is nothing but a way to blatantly ig nore the balanced budget requirement. Not only do those fiscal obligations exist, they will cause the bud geting process of the next biennium to start in a deep hole. This legislature not only failed to balance the bud get, they left the fruits of their failure to be reaped by the next legislature. What a grotesque imitation of a responsible legisla ture. <23 Jwiy First meeting for new superintendent Vernonia School District Superintendent Mike Funderburg began his tenure with a teambuild ing workshop, July 11, for the board of directors and key administrators. According to Funder burg, his goal was to allow key staff an opportu nity to talk frankly with board members, and help board members understand their leadership roles, improve communications and increase trust within both the district and the larger com munity. Board chair Carla Strand felt that the work shop was successful and will allow the board and the staff to “go from there and accomplish great things.” A short business meeting followed the work shop. Deputy Clerk Dawn Plews presented the board with a proposal from JBL&K Risk Ser vices, the district's insurance agent. The district’s 2001-2002 policy included triple coverage for earthquake and flood, with coverage under the district’s main liability insurance, national flood insurance and additional excess earthquake and flood coverage. According to Plews, the excess coverage was purchased in 1997 at a very rea sonable cost. However, the cost to renew the ex cess coverage has increased to nearly $9,000. Plews explained that funds to purchase the ex cess coverage would have to be taken from oth er areas of the budget, as this cost was not in cluded in the approved budget. The board de cided, instead, to drop the excess coverage. The district will still have $19,484,438 of liability cov erage, including earthquake and flood coverage. Funderburg brought the district’s policy on out-of-district placement for students to the board’s attention for review. Last year, 18 stu dents from the Vernonia district were enrolled in other school districts, resulting in the transfer of approxim ately $90,000 in revenue, because state school funds follow students to the districts where they are enrolled. Funderburg proposed that decisions on out- of-district placement first be presented for con sideration by a three person committee. The board was in agrément with the proposal and the committee was formed, composed of Strand, Funderburg and board member Randy Hansen. A second committee, with board members Jim Krahn and Tim Titus and Funderburg, will deter mine the topics for future board workshops. In other business, the board re-elected Strand to the position of chairman and elected Hansen vice-chairman. They also took care of many “housekeeping” details required at the first meet ing of the fiscal year: • Designated Funderberg Chief Administrative & Budget Officer, Custodian of Funds, and Rep resentative of Federal/State & Grant Applica tions. • Designated the District Auditor, Insurance Agent, Newspaper of Record and Attorney of Record. • Set district borrowing limit. • Set substitute teacher pay. • Set 2002-03 board meeting dates. • Adopted health and science textbooks.
