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Letters to the Editor.. 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 attention of the community. 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 February issue is Monday, Jan. 16. School board member offers clarification To the Editor, I'm writing in the hope of clarifying some of the misinformation and rumor that is presently circulating in reference to the financial situation at the Parkrose School District. One of the most frequently asked questions is, Why can't the district use some of the money from the recently passed bond to avoid layoffs and cutbacks? Unfortunately, it's against the law to use that money for any reason other than voter approved capital improvements. With the exception of a very few grant funded positions, pay and benefit costs come from the district general fund. To understand the harsh reality of what's happening with the district's general fund, it's important to understand the limits of the district's control over its own budget. There are two conditions that severely limit the district's flexibility to deal with the present crisis. First, the district is completely dependent upon the state government for revenue, and second, the district is required by state law to maintain a balanced budget. During the 2007-2008 school year the district had a general fund budget of $30.7 million. By the 2011-2012 school year the general fund budget had shrunk to $28.9 million. During that time the district's fixed costs have risen, including a 3.5 percent pay increase to our teachers each of those years up through last year. As a result of rising costs and reduced revenue, the district has been forced to spend down its operational reserves in order to create the mandated balanced budget. In other words, there is no cushion left to absorb operational expenses. This situation leaves the district with only one option to deal with our budget crisis-we've had to find ways to cut costs. Another inescapable consequence of this crisis is that as the district struggles to maintain services to its students, those individuals who are employed by the district will be required to do more work more efficiently. This is not a situation that's exclusive to the Parkrose School District. Virtually every school district across the nation is facing similar circumstances, and as we all know, private companies and businesses are also experiencing significant change as they adjust to the new economic reality. District administrators are presently in the process of preparing an on-line survey that will allow them to solicit suggestions from Parkrose residents. I encourage all Parkrose residents to go to the district website and review the district budget. All district administrators and school board members are available to answer your questions or discuss your ideas. Contact information is available on the district website and all serious suggestions and comments will be considered. Thank you, Guy Crawford, Vice-Chairman Parkrose School Board Resident questions choices made by school district To the Editor: In the December Mid County Memo at the bottom of page 7 there is a paid advertisement called Parkrose School District Superintendent's Corner. In the advertisement it is stated, Parkrose School District is off to another wonderful school year. What a wonderful testimony to the outstanding professionalism of our Parkrose teachers and our Parkrose support staff. They are dealing with no contracts, cuts in programs, cuts in staffing, cuts in instructional days and cuts in the hours of the educational assistants. We are very lucky to have staff of this quality. Also in the December Mid-county Memo there was a front-page article concerning Parkrose teachers and educational assistants-the whole classified staff is without a contract. There was also a long letter to the editor from a Parkrose teacher. Both groups have started this school year without a contract and now are going into mediation in January with the district. Last year the Parkrose superintendent and the Parkrose school board surely had an idea that state funding would result in cuts to staff and programs in the Parkrose School District if they did not do something to off set the funding short fall. They chose to go for a bond. They had another choice. They could have gone for an operating levy. My understanding of an operating levy is that it is an amount of funding voted on by the patrons of a school district to provide more general funds for a specific period of time. School districts can only do this process at certain times. As I understand the process this allows a school district to hire more personnel, continue programs, start needed new programs and address other needs. If this choice had been made: There still might be music at the Middle School. There still might be general music at the elementary schools. There could be increased custodial time at all schools resulting in truly cleaned and maintained buildings. There could be certified physical education teachers at the elementary level. There could be certified librarians to serve our students before they reach high school. There could have been additional maintenance personnel hired so drains like at the middle school were cleaned and the roof maintained. There might be fewer blended classrooms at the elementary level and lower class sizes. There might have been no need to cut educational assistants to a maximum of only 5 hours a day. The class loads could have been maintained with support staff supporting, but now the educational assistants can only work 5 hours per day. The College and Career Counselor position at the high school could still be there, supporting our high school students. Lastly, instruction days could have been restored to a full school year. So, the Parkrose School Board made a choice, their choice passed by few votes. While the bond campaign took place the budget committee accepted the recommendations from the superintendent and the board approved it. I find it very troubling that Parkrose students and staff now are dealing with all the cuts made in the budget. Students have cuts in programs and staff has no contracts. The educational assistants spoken about in the article are members of the classified union. Members of the classified union in the district are the educational assistants, cooks, bus drivers, secretaries, maintenance staff including all of the custodial staff in buildings and security staff. This group is most important to the success of the school district. In their bargaining with the Parkrose School Board they are asking that the highly qualified educational assistants have their time restored. These individuals were schooled in order to be qualified as Certified Classified Assistants. Having these staff members working only five hours a day has affected every school in the Parkrose School District and not in a positive manner. We can hope that the school board is very creative in solving all the problems before them. Choices do have consequences. MaryLu Baetkey Parkrose Resident |
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