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The INDEPENDENT, July 18, 2002
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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.