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| Attendees enjoy scrumptious chicken dinners at the Rossi Farms Eighth Annual Barn Bash held last month at the 125 year-old farm located at Northeast 122nd Avenue and Shaver Street in Parkrose. We lost the names of these partygoers, but would like to identify them in the next issue. The first person to call the Memo with all the names will receive two free tickets to next year’s Rossi Farms Barn Bash. Because this event has so many products and services donated, $17,000 was raised in one evening in support of the Parkrose Youth Activities Fund. |
| MEMO PHOTO: TIM CURRAN |
Mannen, who produces western-themed films through his Turkey Creek Productions, found that Oscar Wilde once visited Tombstone, Ariz. in the wild days of the 1880s. Observing the colorful scarves and bandannas sported by local gunslingers, he called them “land-locked pirates.”
In past years Mannen has produced original short films about the early days of Parkrose, starring members of the Rossi family, and screening them for Barn Bash guests. This year he pretended to direct a scene from such a production, only to have his actors dressed as pirates - cutlasses, peg legs, eye patches, even a parrot - thanks to a befuddled wardrobe mistress.
Mannen says he’ll be filming for real later this summer for a film to be shown at next year’s dance.
There was more entertainment from a civil war re-enactment troupe complete with cannon. The Last Rodeo Band and local singer Tracy Klas provided the music. Rossi Farms and the Parkrose Lions fed the hungry, Widmer Brewing Company the thirsty.
The event took in $17,000 - up $1,000 from last year - for the Parkrose Youth Activities Fund, which augments very stressed budgets for activities in and out of local schools.
Joe Rossi credits employee Amy Salvador, the event’s organizer the last three years, for much of its success. “There’s a theme every year to the comments I get afterward,” he told the Memo, “and this year everyone said how well it was organized. That’s due to Amy.”
Taylor discusses Parkrose School District
In response to questions, Parkrose Heights Neighborhood Association June guest speaker Michael Taylor, Parkrose School District superintendent, gave an interesting snapshot of his domain.
In addition to the critical role it plays, the district is an important entity on the basis of its size alone he said. “Some people don’t realize how big an industry the district is,” he said. “We have 720,000 square feet of building space. Our roofs are equal to 500 homes. Our buses drive 196,000 miles a year. We serve 1,800 meals a day. At our peak we had seven elementary schools. Three have been closed, but they are leased for uses that bring in $335,000 a year in rent.
“Our student population peaked in the ’70s with 6,800 students. At one point we dropped to 2,500. We gradually climbed back to 3,600, and we’ve been holding fairly steady. This is the first time in three of four years that the population has declined.”
As to the budget, Taylor said, “I’m immensely grateful for the Multnomah County income tax. It represents 12 percent of our total budget. Without it we would have had to cut into basic services this year, and we would have been ineffective.” Unfortunately for Taylor, this is the last year for the tax.
He was asked about the problems of teaching immigrant children or those from homes with parents with criminal backgrounds. Taylor said that Parkrose overall has one of the highest per capita incomes in the state, but that the poverty level of families with children is much higher than that of the total community. “Playground language is learned very quickly,” he said. “Language needed to learn takes longer. We have kids coming from, for want of a better word, un-enriched homes whose language skills are on a level with foreign students.” The district recently did training for its teachers on the effects of methamphetamine addiction and other drug abuse.
Parkrose Heights neighborhood newcomers Matt and Julie Williamson asked if the district has any plans to recruit volunteers to help with activities. “Truthfully, no, other than for the Oasis and SMART programs,” Taylor said. “We want to be sure first that we have a structured program. What we struggle with with volunteers is how to get them doing the right things in the right place.”
“The lack of parent involvement in public schools is ridiculous,” Matt Williamson said. “That’s why we have our daughter in a private school.”
His wife Julie added, “We enrolled Madelein at Buckman School, and they begged us to sign her up for the free breakfast program so they could keep their funding. They didn’t ask me questions, nothing; they had no idea what I make. Some of the parents who were dropping their kids off for the breakfast were driving nicer cars than me.”
“There is a tendency to spend money rather than lose it,” Taylor agreed. “A budget is an authority to spend in many cases. Here money not spent goes into a capital equipment fund.”
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