Town Hall meeting to tackle education funding

Central Oregon parents, students, educators and others will gather in Sisters for a Town Hall meeting to explore ways to better fund local schools.

The Wednesday, December 15, meeting in Sisters is timed to coincide with negotiations in Salem on the level of funding schools will get for the next two years.

The Oregon School Boards Association will report on the latest funding trends and projections; Sen. Ben Westlund will describe the political ramifications; and Sarah Pope of Stand for Children, a statewide, grassroots advocacy organization, will describe efforts to reform the way schools are funded.

The meeting will be held from 7 to 9 p.m. in the conference room at GFP Enterprises, 307 W. Sisters Park Dr. in the Sisters Industrial Park.

"Even in Sisters, with our added local option revenue, we are losing ground when it comes to preserving and improving school programs," said organizer Merry Ann Moore, who is coordinating the meeting along with Sisters School District superintendent Ted Thonstad.

The Committee for Sisters School Children and the American Association of University Women/Redmond are both sponsors of the event.

Central Oregonians have experienced reductions in school days, increased class sizes, elimination of honors classes, higher pay-to-play fees and cuts in music and arts programs.

"Private fund-raising efforts are unable to address service reductions of this magnitude," said Moore. "And unfortunately, millions more in cuts are on the way."

Sarah Pope of Stand for Children said her organization is rallying parents and educators to push for a $5.424 billion education budget for the next biennium, higher than the $5 billion proposed in Governor Ted Kulongoski's budget proposal.

Pope said the organization is also pushing for some cost savings, but "we're saying that schools can't suffer any more of the cuts."

She noted that her proposed budget figure is merely what is really needed to hold the line on programs, not necessarily an optimum budget for quality education.