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The Mid-county Memo is your newspaper, and we want to hear from you. Discuss an important issue or address a concern you want to call the community’s attention to. Please include a name, address, and phone number. We prefer e-mailed letters to the editor sent to Dawn Widler, Department Editor at editor@midcountymemo.com. Please put “letter to the ed” in the subject line. You may also mail complete information to 4052 N.E. 22nd Ave., Portland, OR, 97212-1503. The Letters to the Editor represent the views of the letter writer, not necessarily shared by the Mid-county Memo staff.
Parkrose levy good deal for taxpayers
Dear Editor:
Portland Parks, the Multnomah County Library and Mt. Hood Community College all share a crowded ballot in November with the Parkrose School district’s local option levy. All that competition makes it even more important that we make a compelling case for Parkrose citizens to vote to support local schools.
First the facts. The levy, if passed, will run for five years and raise $2 million a year. The owner of a $150,000 house will pay $112.50 a year. The levy will bring stability to 7% of the Parkrose budget and will be used to lower class size, buy books and instructional materials.
The Parkrose school board put the levy on the ballot because of the uncertain mess of bad bills and borrowing being churned out by the Oregon State Legislature as a substitute for honest school financing. Parkrose has been quietly cutting programs and staff, ever since the State legislature took over school financing ten years ago. The number of teachers and instructional staff has decreased by 7% while the number of students has increased by 11%. And yes, we have cut administration, and music, and PE, and counseling, and field trips. We cut last year’s budget thinking that funding would be stable for the next two years between legislative sessions. Then we heard the bad news that Oregon’s economy was in a downturn and the legislature was meeting in special session. We ended up cutting again at the start of this year. Now we are almost certain to have to cut again somewhere before the end of this already reduced year. At this time we have no librarians anywhere in our system except the high school. We have had to close down the elementary schools at night (even though they were hopping at night with community group meetings and scout troops) because we cut our night custodians.
If you are a parent in the district you may already have your reasons to vote for the levy. Parents are sending their children off to Parkrose classes that are starting to be too big for safety and good teaching. Imagine teaching 40+ sixth graders science all in one room! Imagine you are a high school student with average math ability. You have worked hard and made it into calculus and you are in the back of a room packed with 41 other kids. These are actual classes we currently have in the district.
Perhaps you don’t have school aged children. A large number of voters are homeowners with bills to pay and grown-up children or, no children at all. What is your compelling reason to vote for the Parkrose Levy? Some people find it easy to vote for education while others do not.
However, everybody wants their neighborhood to thrive and the investment they have in their home to appreciate. Ask any realtor what holds property values high in a neighborhood. Good schools are at the top of the list. The levy is enough to give us a solid school system that will support the whole neighborhood and improve its value. Supporting schools is similar to maintaining your home in good repair, if you don’t invest in your home it will lose its value. The same is true of your neighborhood.
Finally, the Levy is a good deal for homeowners. The Parkrose Levy raises $10 million dollars for the schools on a low tax rate because the district boundaries include highly valued commercial/industrial property along Airport Way. The ratio of commercial/industrial properties to single family homes is higher then in most other Oregon districts and reduces the impact on the individual taxpayer. Simply put, commercial and industrial property owners will pay a higher percentage of the Levy tax in our district. Look around, other school districts don’t have this advantage.
In spite of the cuts, Parkrose is a viable school district with a strong program and wonderful staff. While the legislature has been taking money from schools in Oregon, test scores have been going up. Parkrose has improving test scores in all its grade schools and the high school. Think what we could do with stable, adequate funding.
Katie Larsell
Vice Chair, Parkrose School Board
larsell@attbi.com
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