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About The independent. (Vernonia, Or.) 1986-current | View Entire Issue (June 5, 2003)
Page 12 T h e IN D E P E N D E N T, Ju n e 5~ 2003 udget committee will try to establish priorities for next biennium From page 1 biennium w ould probably not be know n until m id-June. T he budget adopted fo r the curren t yea r (2002-2003) has had to be reduced by a p p ro x i m a te ly 2 0 p e rce n t o v e r the c o u rs e of th e last s e v e ra l m onths, to cre a te a balanced budget fo r 20 03-2004. Funder- burg said tha t recent action by the legislature to increase the percentage of tra nspo rta tion re im b u rs e m e n t fo r sc h o o ls in eastern O regon decrea sed the am ount of m oney in the c o m mon school fund and cost the Vernonia district about $12 p e r student. At the tim e of the m eeting, legislators w ere very unhappy about school funding, Funder- burg said, and the re w as an e f fort to increase the state school fund to $5.0 billion from the $4.8 billion budgeted for the bi ennium as of M ay 1. Recent new s re p o rts in d ic a te tha t som e efforts are being m ade to raise the state school fund as high as $5.3 billion. N everthe- less, the district has to budget w itho ut any firm num bers. F u n d e rb u rg re c o m m e n d e d th a t any re ve n u e s re s u ltin g from a decrease in the cost of PER S be placed in the c o n tin gency fund because, in this d e p re s s e d eco n o m y, in six m onths the district could be in the sam e position as it w as last D ecem ber w hen e xp ecte d rev- enues did not m ateria lize . In- creasing the co n tin g e n cy fund could allow the d istrict to m ake a d ju stm e n ts to the budget w ith- out cu ttin g school days. Ac- cording to Funderburg, m oney should also be held in con tin- gency until any future litigation regarding P ER S is resolved. Funderburg urged the com - m ittee to adopt the budget as presented, including all the re ductions discussed at previous m eetings, and then identify a r eas of con cern about reduced funding levels accom panied by corresp ond ing areas that could be used to provide funds to sup port program s of concern. D arrell H am b let, a school board m em ber w ho has w orked fo r m onths as a m e m b e r of the Budget A s s is ta n c e Team (BAT), said that the re w a s n ’t a pe rson in the room w ho w ould be unable to find som ething in the budget that he o r she did not like. Further, he said, if a com m ittee m e m b e r ju s t could not support a p a rticu la r cut, he h o p e d th e y w o u ld s u g g e s t w here to get the dolla rs to in- cre ase support. B oard m em ber Jim Krahn im m ediately identified three ar eas in the budget that greatly c o n c e rn him. First, he said, de e p re d u c tio n s in a th le tic tra n s p o rta tio n ($ 1 7 ,7 0 0 0 re m ains in the budget) made “un re a lis tic [a s s u m p tio n s ] about w hat can be expected of kids. In addition, the elim ination of ju n io r va rsity co a c h e s could c re a te a “ga rba ge program ". K rahn said that he w ould rather see the district support few er sports fully in order to have g o o d te a m s. Further, K rah n a g re e d th a t the co n tin g e n cy fun d should be increased. In addition to reducing or elim in ating ju n io r high and high school track and cross country, O ’Leary agreed w ith Krahn that gested that the board review ,if the district could not afford to the “ P ay-to-P lay” po licy as a transport students, the district w ay of funding athletic trans- should not sponsor a program , portation and a ssista nt coach- To fully fund athletic transporta es. W ard also said tha t she tion, Funderburg told the c o m thought all kids should have to mittee, $15,000 w ould have to pay, including those eligib le for be taken from som ew here in the federal lunch program , or the budget. w ork fo r the district in som e c a B a ssett, w ho ch a irs the pacity in order to participate in budget com m ittee, encouraged sports. A c c o rd in g to D e p u ty m em bers to exam ine the budg C lerk Dawn Plews, revenue re et in detail in an effort to find c e ive d fro m the P a y -to -P la y m oney to support program s. A ccording to Bassett, there is “alw ays more room for vision” T h e 27th A nnu al S p e llin g and an opportunity to create a C ontest fo r the S tate of O regon balance so that everyone has a piece of w hat is needed for w as held M ay 13 at the C lat kids. B assett suggested sche d skanie S chool D istrict O ffice. The follow ing first place w in uling another m eeting to dis ners w ill represent the county cuss changes in the budget docum ent and to establish pri at the O regon S tate C o m p e ti tion on A ugust 30 at the O regon orities for increased spending. State Fair: The com m ittee stum bled along D iv is io n I (G ra d e s K -5): discussing both topics for som e tim e. Funderburg told the co m N icole Spencer, R ainier M iddle School. m ittee that the w ork of the BAT w as reaching "a thousand corn- D iv is io n II (G ra d e s 6 -8 ): prom ises” and that the com m it- C h e ls e a C lifto n , S c a p p o o s e tee could not create a whole M iddle School. new docum ent at this point or a D ivision III (G rades 9-12): budget w ith “fictitious dollars,” Kelli H ackett, St. H elens High i.e. potential increases in state School. funding or local fund raising ef- C ontestants from V ernonia included G abriel Rule, T im othy forts. Brown, B rittanie R oberts, w ho Ham blet, after first m oving King places third in Spelling Bee Krahn said he w ould support e lim in a tin g sho p (vo c a tio n a l education) “as it is run today.” He suggested that w ood shop could be taught as w ork experi- encé, though any concrete ex- am ple of how all students could be a c c o m m o d a te d w as not fo rth c o m in g . S ch o o l board m e m be r C ari Le venseller point- ed ou t that the high school is low on electives, having al- ready cut auto shop, interna- tional foods and business e d u cation. Krahn responded that he d o e s n ’t see vocational e d u that the budget be adopted as c a tio n as a co re a c a d e m ic presented (which died for lack class and that, in his opinion, of a second) suggested that the stud en ts participating in shop BAT be disbanded. The commit are p roba bly the sam e students tee reached a consensus that all kept in school w ith a good ath- discussion must now be at the full letic program . committee level. O ’Leary said that B udget com m ittee m em bers one duty of the committee is to ac V icky Rice and R obyn Bassett cept the document, review it and b o th sp o ke v e ry p o s itiv e ly allow the public an opportunity to ab out the value of vocational digest the proposal. Board mem- educatio n and said they w ould ber Randy Hansen added that es- not sup port any additional cuts tablishing a list of priorities is a to elective program s in general paramount duty of the committee. o r vocational education in par- C athy W ard, a W ashington ticular. 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