News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Sorted by date Results 51 - 75 of 99
Lynn Baker. Photo by Jim Cornelius Lynn Baker, the soon-to-be Sisters school superintendent, is getting a rapid introduction to the schools and the general area. The 53-year-old educator signed a contract as interim superintendent for 2003-04 at the end of May. A few days later he and his wife visited for a weekend and rented a condominium in Pine Meadow Village. On Monday and Tuesday of last week he was back in town for an intensive round of meetings with everyone from Steve Swisher, the man he will succeed, to the... Full story
Almost ready for move-in. Photo by Tom Chace Building a new high school is, of course, a huge project. So is getting moved in. "Actually, when you look at the overall project and everything that has to occur here, it can be viewed as a daunting task. But when you break it down into sections, and assigning those areas of work to responsible people, it becomes a manageable process." That, in any case, is the view of Bob Martin, the man in charge of moving furniture and equipment into two Sisters schools this summer. The new... Full story
Sixty-one percent of this year's Sisters High School graduates earned a state Certificate of Initial Mastery (CIM) in addition to a diploma. That is undoubtedly the highest percentage in Central Oregon and one of the highest in the state. Last year, 42 percent of Sisters graduates received CIMs. The next highest proportion in Central Oregon was 30 percent at Crook County High. The statewide average was 27 percent. State figures for the current year are not yet available. The Certificate of Initial Mastery is an awkwardly... Full story
The Sisters School Board has reason to believe that the third time is a charm. On its third attempt, the board hired a superintendent for the coming year. The man selected as interim superintendent on a one-year contract last week is Lynn Baker, who has been the superintendent of Cashmere School District in Washington state for the past four years. About 10 miles west of Wenatchee in the heart of a fruit-growing valley, the Cashmere district is similar in size and character to Sisters. It has 1,400 students who attend three... Full story
The tax bill for the new $21-million high school that will open in Sisters this fall has been lower than expected and is continuing to drop. In his budget message for 2003-04, Superintendent Steve Swisher noted that, "The bond rate for the new high school and middle school conversion was anticipated to be $1.62 per $1,000 (assessed valuation) during the initial campaign in 2001." Instead, the annual rate needed to make the bond payment started at $1.39 per $1,000 in 2001-02 and dropped to $1.30 during 2002-03, the fiscal year... Full story
There will be one new face on the Sisters School Board beginning in July: Tom Coffield will replace Steve Keeton. Keeton, a Sisters contractor, is completing one four-year term on the board. He chose not to seek re-election, citing time pressures. Coffield, executive director of SOAR (Sisters Organization for Activities), easily won the open seat in the May 20 election, receiving 942 votes to 400 for his opponent, retired teacher Steve Mathews. In the only other board contest on the ballot, incumbent Jeff Smith defeated... Full story
John Sheldahl won re-election to the board of Black Butte School District last week. His 12-vote victory over challenger Doug Curtis wasn't exactly front-page news, even in Central Oregon. In fact, the district rarely makes headlines anywhere, and many residents like it that way. This preference stems partly from gratitude that the district continues to exist. By normal odds, it shouldn't. One of the smallest districts in Oregon, it defies conventional educational wisdom that the best schooling is provided by systems large... Full story
The Sisters school budget committee Monday night adopted an $8.5 million general fund budget for 2003-04, as proposed earlier by Superintendent Steve Swisher. The action is relatively meaningless, however, because the true size of the budget will be determined in Salem, not Sisters. The district's spending for next year will depend upon the current Legislature's school support appropriation for the next biennium. Swisher and School Board Chairman Jeff Smith both reported that the latest word from knowledgeable insiders in... Full story
A twice-burned but still determined Sisters School Board has lined up interviews with four candidates for the job of interim superintendent for the coming school year. The search for a temporary leader was launched May 14, the day after Rogue River Superintendent Charles Hellman withdrew from consideration. Hellman had been offered the top job after an elaborate search, but he and the board were unable to agree on contract terms. Hellman was actually the board's second choice. The first choice, Central Point secondary... Full story
The Sisters School Board has agreed to take a small gamble to ensure that the new high school will open this fall with a nearly full complement of new computers and related equipment. Actually, District Technology Coordinator Todd Pilch is taking the main gamble. Originally, the board approved a cautious approach to the purchase of $844,000 worth of "fixtures, furnishings and equipment" (FF&E) for the new building. It accepted Superintendent Steve Swisher's estimate that the district will receive that much from a state fund... Full story
Charles Hellman. Photo by Jim Cornelius Charles Hellman and the Sisters School Board have failed to agree on a contract that would make Hellman the next superintendent of Sisters schools. Hellman, 59, is the superintendent of Rogue River schools in southern Oregon. He was chosen to be the new Sisters superintendent on April 18. Since then, he and the Sisters board have been engaged in negotiations. For some time there have been hints that the talks were not going well. Hellman confirmed Tuesday morning that he had faxed a bri... Full story
To judge by their public statements, the four candidates for two contested seats on the Sisters School Board have no major school-related disagreements. They believe the schools are doing a good job but face serious budget problems. Ballots were mailed to school district voters Friday, May 2, and must be returned to the county elections office by 5 p.m. Tuesday, May 20. Most Oregon school districts are filling one or more board seats in this annual exercise. Three of the five Sisters board positions are on the ballot. The... Full story
Sisters School Superintendent Steve Swisher will trade the high desert for the beach next school year. He will become interim superintendent of the Brookings-Harbor School district on the southern Oregon coast. Brookings and Harbor are neighboring small towns at the mouth of the Chetco River, not far from the California border. "I got the call about a week ago," Swisher explained last week. The call was from the Oregon School Boards Association, which was helping Brookings find a new chief executive. The current... Full story
Superintendent Steve Swisher on Monday night, May 5, proposed a 2003-04 Sisters school budget that would keep the level of service about the same as the current year. If his scenario comes true, the schools will spend $8.4 million, 5.7 percent more than the $7.9 million being spent this year after cuts caused by state funding reductions. The increase would primarily go for negotiated salary and benefit increases for teachers and other staff members. At the first school budget committee of the year, Swisher said his... Full story
Sisters area residents will be able to hear -- and question -- school board candidates at a forum Thursday night, May 1. Sponsored by the unions representing teachers and classified employees, the forum will begin at 6 p.m. in the lecture-drama room of Sisters High School. Each candidate will be asked to make a brief presentation, to be followed by several questions prepared by union representatives. The meeting will then be opened to questions from anyone in attendance. Three positions on the five-member board will be... Full story
A racially charged incident at a high school soccer game last fall has resulted in a $750 fine against Sisters High School. The fine was imposed by the executive board of the Oregon State Activities Association, which concluded that Sisters soccer coach Mark Keel "withdrew the team prior to the completion of the competition" in violation of OSAA rules. There was no question that Keel and his team left the field while a few minutes remained on the clock in a game at Molalla High School last September 16. But when the fine was... Full story
Photo by Jim Cornelius Charles Hellman, veteran superintendent of Rogue River schools in southern Oregon, will be the next Sisters School Superintendent. Hellman, 59, was chosen by unanimous vote of the Sisters School Board Friday morning, April 18. Board Chairman Jeff Smith acknowledged that the board was prepared to offer the job to Doug Jantzi, 47, director of secondary education at Central Point School District, just a few miles south of Rogue River. But midway through his final interview Friday morning, after the board h... Full story
The timing of next year's spring vacation in Sisters schools has been as unsettled as spring weather. It underwent one more change at the last school board meeting. At its March meeting, the board adopted a 2003-04 calendar that would make one major change from the recent past -- cutting the length of spring vacation to one week instead of two. Most Oregon schools take only one week. Sisters' two-week tradition is a vestige of a short-lived year-round school experiment in the mid-'90s. The board decided in March that next... Full story
"Come and meet the candidates." That invitation is being extended by the school board to all Sisters School District residents this week. From 5 to 7 p.m.Thursday, April 17, the two finalists in the district's search for a new superintendent will be in the cafetorium of Sisters High School to meet local people and answer questions. Chairman Jeff Smith says the public "is not just invited -- encouraged" to take advantage of this opportunity. It will probably be school patrons' only direct access to the candidates before the bo... Full story
Sisters High School Principal Boyd Keyser is moving out of Oregon, not just out of Sisters. In a front-page column in last month's school newsletter, Keyser announced that he would resign his post at the end of this school year. A few days later, he announced that he had accepted a job in Washington state -- principal of Cle Elum-Roslyn High School. Cle Elum is in the Interstate 90 corridor about 80 miles east of Seattle. At its regular meeting last Monday night, the Sisters School Board accepted Keyser's resignation without... Full story
It would be a shame to build a new house and not have any furniture to put in it. The same would be true of a new school. This is not likely to happen with the new high school being built in Sisters, scheduled to open in mid-September. But the school board and administration have not found it easy to agree on exactly how to furnish the new structure or how to pay for it. In the meantime, some faculty members have said they heard that at its last meeting the board refused to approve furniture purchases. That's not correct.... Full story
Sisters High School Principal Boyd Keyser will resign his post at the end of this school year. He made his long-rumored departure plans public last week in a front-page column for The Stampede, the monthly newsletter mailed to parents and other interested residents. Keyser, 44, came to Sisters High four years ago after two years in his first job as principal, at Central High in Monmouth-Independence. He is under active consideration for several administrative posts, some outside of Oregon. "One of the tough things about... Full story
There will be contests for two of the three Sisters School Board positions to be filled in the May 20 election. Ballots will be mailed to voters early in May. When the filing deadline passed last Friday, March 21, incumbent Eric Dolson, publisher of The Nugget, was left unopposed. But two candidates have filed for the position now occupied by Sisters contractor Steve Keeton, who does not seek re-election. And two challengers signed up for the seat occupied by Board Chairman Jeff Smith, who is trying for another four-year... Full story
Sisters' next school superintendent will come from Jackson County. That much is certain. The only question is which of two finalists will get the job: Charles Hellman, superintendent of Rogue River School District, or Clayton "Doug" Jantzi, director of secondary education and director of curriculum assessment for Central Point schools. Those two emerged with the highest rankings by the Sisters School Board and lay members of the district's search committee after the five semifinalist candidates for the position were interview... Full story
School will start later in Sisters next year, according to the 2003-04 calendar the Sisters School Board adopted at its last meeting. But the board's discussion suggested that it might make some minor changes later. The decision seems firm on three points: School will start later than usual, on Monday, September 15, the beginning of the third week of September; Christmas vacation will remain two weeks long, as in the past; and spring break will be only one week long rather than two as in the recent past (including this... Full story
