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The Mid-county Memo is your newspaper. We want to hear from you. Discuss an important issue or address a concern you want to call to the community's attention. We prefer e-mailed letters to the editor sent to Darlene Vinson at editor@midcountymemo.com. Please put “Letter to the editor” in the subject line. You may also mail your letter to 3510 N.E. 134th Ave., Portland, OR 97230 or fax it to 503-249-7672. Deadline for the March issue is Tuesday, Feb. 15.

This voter: Say 'NAY' to bond measure renewal

To the editor:
I read your article about the new Superintendent (“Superintendent finds her stride” - January 2011) Parkrose School District Superintendent Karen Fischer Gray has a tiger by the tail. I don't think she understands what people have been through.

She explains away the proposed new bond issue as an extension of the one that paid for the new high school. The district was supposed to get a community center, a library, and police station. When they built the state of the art theatre there was no money for curtains, lighting or sound. The gym floor has been replaced three times since the school was built, the front steps had to be redone because they retained water and ice and the 15-year-old roof had to be replaced last summer.

I don't think Superintendent Gray understands that 85% of the residents of the district don't have kids in school and that another large chunk of the population are not citizens and cannot vote.

I don't think she understands that there's just no money. People have to rely on free school lunches for their kids and are shopping at WinCo; lots of people in this neighborhood are on food stamps. There are a lot of houses in the district that have been foreclosed on. It's just a poor time to get a bond issue going and try to build another school. Where will the middle school kids go while the new one is being built?

I pay $166 a year on the old bond. I don't want to continue to pay $166. I want to get my teeth cleaned, go to Country Kitchen now and then, but I can't afford it; why can't the school district act the same way?

There are three schools in this district that are not used by district students, Thompson, Knott and Helensview School (former Sumner Elementary). Sell those buildings, use the proceeds to fund the new buildings; let that land get developed as residential properties, then they'll (Parkrose School District) get new property tax money every year.

Parkrose is a special little district. Superintendent Gray needs to understand that she is starting another war. It's going to divide the community. This is the same district, same people, same voters that witnessed the turmoil of the Rutledge, Rice and (Jackie) Cottingim fiasco from years ago. Promises were made to voters then; I think they should be kept even if it was not on her (Fischer Gray's) watch.

I will go to every meeting. I want people to know what is going on.

Mike Keating
Parkrose Heights resident
Mrcigar1949@yahoo.com

Note: Keating ran for the school board in 1995. His three children attended Sacramento, Parkrose Middle and high schools
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