Redmond students could ease budget woes

Redmond students may help ease Sisters' school budget pains next year.

The reason is that 15 or 20 students who live in the Redmond area may transfer to Sisters schools in 2003-04. The students will carry with them the money all districts receive from the state on the basis of enrollment.

Schools receive about $5,000 per student this year and will probably get about the same next year. Thus, 20 students added to Sisters' enrollment would increase the district's revenue by $100,000.

Sisters Superintendent Steve Swisher anticipates a $240,000 budget hole next year.

The governor has recommended a $200-million increase in the state's allocation for public schools in the next biennium. But with the latest news of an ever-growing revenue shortfall in the current biennium, Swisher says "now we (Oregon schools) might be lucky to get the $4.8 billion we currently have. So ultimately the schools are looking at being flat-funded for the next biennium."

Nonetheless, schools must cope with normal inflation of a variety of costs. Swisher figures that pressure will increase the district's total operating expenses by 3 percent.

"On an $8 million budget, that's like $240,000. And so somewhere in that neighborhood is probably what we'll end up having to cut in our district just to keep the status quo."

Some of the necessary reduction will be gained through attrition -- retirements or resignations of administrators, classified employees and teachers, some of whom may not be replaced.

But if Sisters gains 20 more students from Redmond, that will take care of nearly half the anticipated problem. Natural enrollment increase from within the district's own boundaries will also help.

Why the sudden expectation of more students from Redmond? Because the Redmond School Board has changed a policy that in the past strongly discouraged transfers of students out of the district.

Under the old policy, the board would not approve the transfer of any Redmond student to another district unless a student from the receiving district wanted to transfer to Redmond.

This "one-for-one" rule minimized transfers. No Redmond students have entered Sisters schools under the policy this year and only two who came in previous years are currently enrolled. (Once in, students have been allowed to stay in their new district.)

The policy did not prevent parents from moving their children to a different district by paying tuition, but that costs $546 per month. Five tuition-paying students from Redmond are enrolled in Sisters schools this year.

The clear impetus for the Redmond board's policy change is serious school overcrowding. Redmond's schools are over capacity and the district has failed in two attempts to win approval for bonds to finance the construction of new schools or school additions.

The most recent bond failure means "it's probably going to be a good four to five years before any new schools can be built," Redmond Superintendent Jerry Colonna said. "We realize that we have to look at a variety of other things so one way we're going to ease the overcrowding is to allow that (making it easier for students to transfer out of the district.)"

Colonna says he is expecting about 50 students to transfer out of his district in the coming year, 15 to Sisters and the rest to Bend. While his estimate of the Sisters-bound group is slightly lower than Swisher's, both superintendents will have a clearer idea of the true number by April 1.

That's the deadline the Redmond board has set for parents to submit written requests for a transfer for next year. There have been about 13 students on the waiting list for Sisters this year.

Even with a more lenient policy, transfers will not be automatic. The receiving district must grant permission for a student to enter a particular school at a particular grade level. And parents or guardians must provide transportation.

Bend may be reluctant to accept additional students in some schools at some grade levels because of crowding. Sisters could run into the same problem at the elementary level, but it expects to have plenty of room for extra students in the high school and middle school. The district will open a new, larger high school this fall and middle school students will move into the existing high school building.

Colonna acknowledges that the restrictive transfer policy has been motivated by fear of losing state revenue.

"It was about money," he said.

But even though the district will lose $250,000 if his estimate of 50 transfers proves accurate, the Redmond superintendent says he has always philosophically supported a more open policy. He notes that in Central Oregon only Sisters and Bend have had open policies; Redmond, Madras and Prineville (Crook County) have not.

Redmond is a large and geographically diverse district. Besides the City of Redmond, it takes in the communities of Crooked River Ranch, Terrebonne, Eagle Crest, Alfalfa and Tumalo. It has about 6,100 students, compared with 1,100 in Sisters.

Despite his endorsement of the new transfer policy, Colonna notes that the change is not necessarily permanent.

"Right now, it's a one-year trial. While we wouldn't pull people back who did this (next year), we might say we can't do it any longer...We may have to choose what's the worst of two evils, overcrowding or underfunding. In our school district we're going to have to deal with both of those next year."