Cuts run deep at Sisters High School

Principal Bob Macauley (right) shut down a student walk-out on Tuesday, May 18. Students had planned to walk out in protest over staff and program cuts next year but decided against it in the face of three-day suspensions. Teacher Carol Dixon, a retired teacher (center) is one who will not be rehired. photo by Jim Cornelius English and Spanish classes will be slashed along with photography and drama programs at Sisters High School (SHS) under a plan to cope with some $400,000 in budget cuts next year.

Cuts are being made at Sisters Middle School and Sisters Elementary School as well.

Several "retired" teachers won't be back at Sisters High School next year. English teacher Carol Dixon, Spanish instructor Elizabeth Renner and photography teacher Sue Beck are all officially retired because of pension considerations, but are working part time.

SHS Principal Bob Macauley said staffing cuts had to be made to handle budget cuts and the retired teachers had to go, rather than cutting regular staff.

"When we're cutting as deeply as we are, there's no way I can keep retired teachers," Macauley said.

That doesn't mean it was easy cutting high-quality teachers and programs.

"Those teachers are actually at the best of their game, too," the principal said. "I think they do a great job. This is painful for me."

Painful for the teachers, too.

"I'm very saddened by it," Carol Dixon told The Nugget. "I've been teaching for 33 years and I still have the passion. In fact, I'm grading papers even as I speak.

"They're losing somebody who really wants to be there, somebody who wants to give."

Dixon said that she is concerned that the retired teachers were cut because it was an easy, logical financial decision, without taking into account the damage to programs.

Dixon teachers Writing 121, which is a college credit course. That program, along with other English sections, faces elimination.

However, Principal Macauley is exploring ways to offer the class through a Central Oregon Community College partnership. Such a program would require students to pay fees.

In fact, while Macauley presented specific cutting plans to the school board to give them a picture of what will be slashed next year, the actual program cuts are not completely fixed yet.

Staff may be shuffled around to cover some sections. However, Spanish instruction will certainly be reduced and "drama, right now, is off the table."

Drama is taught by Kit Stafford, who is involved districtwide in arts education. She's being cut, too.

Counselor Charlie Kanzig is being transferred to Sisters Middle School, a move that is unpopular with students. Gretchen Addison, an SHS student, spoke to the school board last week, asking that the decision be reversed.

Kanzig will replace the retiring Steve Summerfield.

Nursing services have been pared back across the district, affecting all three schools.

Sisters Middle School Principal Lora Nordquist is not filling the social studies post held by Rob Kurtz, who died this spring after a long battle with cancer.

Social studies will be reduced from four sections to three and class sizes in general will go up. Half-time teacher Kathy Mahn is transferring to the high school, leaving special education and math lab duties to special education instructor Brian Stevens to take on her case load.

Nordquist, who is curriculum director for the school district, said that the administrative team tried to look at the whole district in deciding where to cut.

"Given the amount of dollars in our general fund for next year, I feel our administrative team has done a good job of looking at the big picture and having as little impact as possible," she said.

Direct cuts are not deep at Sisters Elementary School, according to Principal Tim Comfort. Elementary school programs are not as flexible as high school programs.

However, the school still feels the impact as class sizes swell to 27/28:1 because no teachers can be hired to cope with strong growth.

Counseling and P.E. postiions are remaining unfilled and supply budgets are cut to the bone.

Macauley acknowledged that trying to minimize the impact of cuts makes them politically more palatable in the broader community. Simply slashing a program like football or band would be a more dramatic illustration of the impact of budget cuts than eliminating a college credit writing course and sections of English and Spanish.

But Macauley won't go there. Co-curricular activities are considered critical to success in a district where 84 percent of the students participate. Their funding has already been reduced.

Programs that are cut take a long time to restore.

He recalled advice from former Redmond Superintendent Jerry Colonna: "Whatever you cut now will be gone for 10 years. Cut carefully."

The cuts worry Macauley and the other administrators, who fear that the successful Sisters education system is being degraded.

"We have something special going on here and I don't want to start looking like an ordinary high school," he said.

The future is in question.

"It's important to know if we're going to have a chance to get healthy again. I think the answer is yes, but it's not in 2004-05," he said.