News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
After several lean years, Sisters schools are feeling flush with an $8.4 million budget, approved by the school board last week.
That's up from $7 million last year.
The extra money will allow the district to hire new teachers, update technology and take care of some maintenance needs.
The lion's share of the new funds comes from local option taxes approved by Sisters area voters in November 2000. A revised estimate from the Deschutes County Assessors Office placed the revenue from local option at $670,000.
The school board had originally estimated local option collections at $450,000.
Additionally, the district will receive $276,000 in a school improvement grant targeted at class-size reduction. Another $200,000 appears in the general fund this year because the state wants home school tutorial funds run through the general fund.
Finally, the district is counting on an additional $200,000 to trickle down from an increased state education budget.
"It's almost like Christmas," said elementary school principal Tim Comfort. "It's the best news I've seen in the six years I've been here."
For Comfort, the major impact will be in staffing. The school will hire two more teachers this year.
"This last year, we had only two third grade (classes)," the principal said. "This year we'll be able to return to three third grades."
That means much smaller class sizes, coming down from student-teacher ratios of 32-1 or 34-1 to lows of 24-1.
"Quite simply (lower class sizes) mean a teacher can meet individual students' needs more directly," said Comfort.
The elementary school will also purchase health curriculum resources, according to Comfort.
Sisters High School will also add new staff, restoring 3.5 full-time positions and adding 2.5 new positions. According to Principal Boyd Keyser, that means lower class sizes for the high school. Staff will now also be able to develop a Certificate of Advanced Mastery program to help students apply education toward career development.
The high school will also restore funding to sports programs that were cut last year. Coaches salaries and transportation will be provided again for cross country, swimming, golf, skiing and junior varsity soccer, according to Keyser.
The major boon to Sisters Middle School will come from funds to purchase textbooks. The school has been operating for years with inadequate and out-of-date textbooks.
"We are going to be able to do some catch-up textbook purchasing here," said middle school principal Lora Nordquist.
The middle school will also develop a half-day alternative program for students who are having a tough time behaviorally or academically in the mainstream program.
Technology across the district will get a big boost. Each computer will get an upgrade so every machine is running up to the same level of performance and has equal capabilities. According to Keyser, new anti-virus software will cut down considerably on staff time spent fighting or cleaning up after computer viruses.
Internet filtering software will be purchased to enhance protection on computers at all the schools.
Each school has submitted a laundry list of maintenance priorities to be taken care of with extra maintenance money. Repairs will be minimal at Sisters Middle School, since that site will be decommissioned when students move to the current high school in a couple of years.
Sisters High School will undergo extensive repairs funded by a loan against the district's Lundgren Mill property. None of those repairs will be paid for out of the general fund budget.
Sisters Elementary School will get its playground resurfaced and two concrete entryways will be repaired.
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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