The INDEPENDENT, Decem ber 5, 2002
Page 13
NWRESD presents annual report to Banks, Vernonia school boards
The annual report from the
Northwest Regional Education
Service D istrict (NW RESD)
was presented to both the
Banks and Vernonia School
Districts at th e ir N ovem ber
m eetings. Dr. Bud Moore,
NWRESD Deputy Superinten
dent and Sally Bunnel, Zone
Three Director, made the pres
entation in Banks, November
18. In Vernonia, Dr. Todd Her-
berg, NW RESD S uperinten
dent, made the presentation
accompanied by Zone 5 Direc
tor Del Fennell, November 21.
Financial overview
Both presentations gave an
overview of the NWRESD an
nual report previously sent to
school board members. Like lo
cal school districts, Education
Service Districts (ESDs) re
ceive the majority of their fund
ing from the state school fund.
Recent legislation requires that
90 percent of all money re
ceived must be spent on stu
dent-related services in, or by,
local school districts. NWRESD
serves 20 school districts in
W ashington, Columbia, C lat
sop and Tillam ook Counties
and currently has the largest
student enrollment of any ESD
in the state. The 2000-2001
legislature passed a four-year
equalization plan for ESD fund
ing throughout the state, similar
to school district equalization.
Prior to that legislation, large
metropolitan ESDs, such as
Multnomah, received far more
money per student than other
ESD’s.
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The financial overview fur
ther illustrates the similarities of
ESD funding and school district
funding across the state. Both
are based on Average Daily
M em bership
(weighted) or
ADMw, and both have had re
ductions in the amounts origi
nally budgeted from the state
school fund.
NWRESD has an ADMw of
107,736 and is currently budget
ed to receive $19,909,930 from
the State School Fund, approxi
mately $1.5 million less than the
$21.5 million allocated by the
legislature
in June
2001.
NWRESD can expect a further
reduction of $800,000 if the Jan
uary 28 income tax measure fails.
Urge school boards to
meet with legislators
Moore and Herberg urged
school board members to at
tend the legislative dinner
sponsored by NW RESD on
Dec. 2. Members of both hous
es of the state legislature will
have an opportunity to engage
in discussion with local school
board members about the im
pact of their decisions on local
school districts.
In an interview with The IN
DEPENDENT, Herberg said
that the NWRESD contains the
districts of eight state senators
(over 25 percent of the legisla
tive body) and that he and oth
ers have been working diligent
ly with legislators to develop bi
partisan, realistic solutions to
Oregon’s school funding crisis.
Herberg hoped to reach con
sensus with the legislators prior
to the Decem ber 2 dinner
meeting with school board
members. According to Her-
berg, the agreement will in
clude a solution for the short
term funding crisis as well as a
practical long-term solution to
provide stable funding for Ore
gon’s schools. In addition, Her
berg said, he is also working to
reach a similar agreement with
Multnomah and other metropol
itan ESDs. Herberg expressed
hoped that superintendents,
school board m em bers and
legislators could work effective
ly as a team during the upcom
ing legislative session to re
solve the current crisis.
NWRESD includes 20
school districts
Superintendents from the 20
school districts within NWRESD
meet annually to agree on how
ESD funding should be spent.
The ESD is restricted by law to
10 percent of the total funds for
internal operations. According
to Moore, 27 percent (of the 90
percent remaining) is retained
by the ESD to provide “core
services" that local districts
agree can best be provided at,
or from, a central location. The
remaining ESD funds are deliv
ered directly to local school dis
tricts. The annual report sum
marizes the four areas of serv
ice provided by the ESD - Ad
ministrative and Board Services,
Special Student Services, In
struction and School Improve
ment Services and Technology
and Support Services.
Report includes how
districts use services
The annual report also sum
marizes how each school dis
trict spent their allocation. In
both Banks and Vernonia, the
vast majority of the ESD alloca
tion is used to provide special
Student Services. These in
clude early intervention/early
childhood special education,
school age special education
and low incidence regional
services (LIRS). In the Banks
school district 83 percent of to
tal funds were spent in areas of
special student services. In
Vernonia, 73 percent was spent
on special student services.
The remainder, 17 percent in
Banks and 27 percent in Ver
nonia, was spent on services
that benefit all students in the
areas of instructional and
school improvement and tech
nology and support services.
According
to
the
report,
NWRESD will advocate for im
proved funding for early inter
vention and adequate funding
for LIRS for all children in the
district.
Herberg said that NWRESD
priorities for 2002-2003 include
four m ajor areas: Continued
delivery of high-quality direct
services to special education
students, especially for high
need students who cannot be
served by their local school dis
tricts; addressing the needs of
students who are English Lan
guage Learners (ELL); helping
provide access to technology
for every student in the area;
providing local districts with in
creased student services in the
areas of student assessment,
curriculum alignment and staff
training tor the purpose of im
proving student achievement.
A dditional inform ation, in
cluding the complete annual re
port, is available on NWRESD
website.www.nwresd.k12.or.us
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