News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Many Sisters students have textbooks that are wearing out and falling apart. Many have textbooks that are way out of date. Some don't have textbooks at all.
"They're non-existent in some classrooms," school board chair Bill Reed said earlier this month. "It's really, really a bad situation."
School administrators acknowledge that the textbook situation is dismal.
"While we technically meet the state standards, we're constantly running into issues of having the right book and having enough," said schools superintendent Steve Swisher. "It's more of a problem the further up you go."
That assessment was confirmed by school principals. Sisters Elementary School principal Tim Comfort noted that the elementary grades recently adopted new reading and math texts, but teachers are still dealing with inadequate social studies texts.
By the time students get to high school, the situation is worse.
"Math is way behind," said principal Boyd Keyser. "There hasn't been a new adoption since the school started. Social studies textbooks are quite dated."
The problem boils down to money. Textbooks are expensive; about $50 per book. That means a full adoption for a single subject area -- a textbook for every student -- could cost as much as $250,000, an astronomical figure for a cash-strapped school district.
The district budgets some money each year for textbook acquisition, but it's not even close to enough to put the district on a solid footing. The district has budgeted $25,000 this year for textbooks, while, according to Swisher, it would take $40,000 per year for three years to fill the district's pressing needs. And that is not putting a book in every student's hand for each subject.
But textbooks are no longer the only tool -- or necessarily the best one -- in the education tool kit.
Comfort noted that the elementary school has received a donation of some reading program computer software to supplement its textbooks -- materials that give a boost to young readers.
At the high school, Keyser advocates using computer software and the internet as educational tools. Keyser believes using these tools provides a double benefit: Students learn the subject matter and they also learn to use the kinds of research tools and techniques they will use in the professional world.
"When they go out into the field as a biologist or a civil engineer, they're not going to get information from textbooks," Keyser said.
Some curriculum areas, such as math, do require traditional textbooks, Keyser acknowledged. Others, like social science, could perhaps be taught better without one.
Teaching with technology poses its own problems.
"The problem is having reliable networks and access to computers," Keyser said.
Keyser believes that schools should make curriculum decisions before spending big money on textbooks, trying to make teaching techniques as flexible as possible.
Sisters is far from unique in its dearth of textbooks.
"Districts all over the state are struggling with the same issues," Swisher said.
Swisher attributes part of the problem to changes in bonding rules over the past decade.
"You can build your buildings, but you can't furnish them or supply them," he said.
It is easy to argue that schools fund too many extra-curricular programs at the expense of basics such as textbooks. However, Swisher thinks that argument is unfair.
"The only thing we pay for in our co-curricular budget is transportation... and coaches' salaries," he said.
Oregonians are now able to vote for "local option" taxes whose funds could be used for such things as buying textbooks. However, Sisters School District has only begun to debate the pros and cons of the local option tax and it is far from certain that the district will ask voters to approve one.
Donations may be made to the Sisters Schools Foundation and targeted toward textbooks. However, Comfort noted that textbooks are an expensive item for donations and providing books "has, in general, been something that has been seen as our responsibility."
Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.
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